The Thirst for Alternate Energy Resources in Pakistan
Gas is scarce and Pakistan is facing gas supply cuts due to a widening supply-demand gap. It is being apprehended that the crisis will worsen next year with the gas shortfall likely to almost double to more than two billion cubic feet a day (BCFD), despite liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports planned over the next few months. The gap between gas demand and supply stood at around one BCFD this year which would go up to 2.1 BCFD by next year. Going forward, the gas shortfalls would increase by more than 300% to 6.5 BCFD by 2020. It is an undeniable fact that the mineral reserves of the earth are not unlimited and is to exhaust now or sometime later. This is the high time to gather all the dilemmas related to natural gas depletion in the country and start working on the alternate reforms. The maintenance of existing resources and the exploration for new reserves will only result in some more time to spare so to firmly grip or shifting the masses to the long term options for this depletion issue certain short term yet easy way outs should also be planned in parallel.
Pakistan fulfills 51% of the energy demands thus there is domination of Natural gas in Pakistan’s energy mix. Through natural gas which is to date the mostly used for domestic and transportation purposes in Pakistan i.e. about around 30%. Therefore a sudden decline in the reserves is also been observed. Some other conflicts are given below:
· Political influence and Feudal Lords:
In every new or profitable idea for the country there always arises a problem of politicians trying to shine their politics by unnecessarily interfering in the matter. This mostly involves mere politics and nothing more and can be catered to if dealt wisely. Most of the lands in the interior Pakistan particularly Baluchistan and Sindh which is of great importance for mineral resources and windmill technology belongs to the feudal lords (Zamindars) who create hurdles in the way of development as they don’t want the people of their area to prosper and develop.
· Investor confidence and the declining commercial sector:
While setting up a project one mostly needs foreign interest both from the investment and from the technological point of view the security conditions in the country are a big hurdle in this matter. Moreover the political and economical instability resists the investors and companies to jump into the market or to co-ordinate with the Pakistani engineers, the kidnapping of Chinese and Scottish engineers are recent examples. Along with this the presently in-power commercial energy sector that is the oil and gas companies will give a hard time to any new idea that puts their business at stake.
· Lack of awareness and cynicism towards innovations:
Due to lack of education the people of Pakistan easily fall prey to the evil designs of some belittling people. Most people often come up as a big problem for people who try to go against the grain. It is also evident from history that whenever a new idea particularly that related to engineering or technology is put forward a hue and cry over the environmental standards is raised.
· The Baluchistan issue:
When setting up a project one also has to make sure that it keeps running, also that the large scale projects like wind power projects or the gas exploration and supply projects take years to complete, in such a situation residence and facilities for the engineers are amongst the problems to consider. A good relationship must exist between the technicians and the native population. Same is the case for Baluchistan province; the Baloch feel hard done by and are very angry, mainly because of being ignored every now and then. Broken promises also add to the exasperation.
Despite of being a mineral rich province Baluchistan’s total budgeted revenue receipts 94 percent are expected to flow from the federal government, highlighting both the heavy dependence on federal transfers and the huge mismatch between the assigned responsibilities of the province and the wherewithal available to it to discharge such obligations.
Baluchistan’s total receipts from the Islamabad for all forms of transfers is less than 25 percent what the federal government keeps for itself simply for collecting all taxes, gas related excise duties, etc. This results in the blasts of the gas pipelines and heavy resistance on the course of mineral exploration and development.