KARACHI: Pakistan is working on a number of options to scale up the utilization of Thar coal reserves including for power production, converting it into liquid and gas for fertilizer manufacturing, increasing its nationwide supplies through railways and exporting it in the future.
The enhanced use of coal has the potential to reduce the country’s reliance on expensive imported energy and raw material for fertiliser manufacturing. This would slash the lofty import bill, help narrow down the current account deficit and accelerate economic growth of the country.
Pakistan has 175 billion tons of coal reserves in Tharparkar alone.
“They are equivalent to 50 billion tons of oil equivalent (TOE) which is more than Saudi Arabian and Iranian oil reserves,” Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) General Manager Admin and External Affairs Ahmed Muneeb said while briefing a group of journalists in Thar. “The reserves are equal to 2,000 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas which is 68 times higher than Pakistan’s total gas reserves.”
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Thar coal can meet the electricity demand of Pakistan for several centuries, however, the entire coal reserves will not be utilised for power production. “There could be many other uses of the coal apart from power production.”
“We can perform liquefaction and make syngas (synthesis gas)which can be utilised as a raw material) for fertiliser manufacturing,” he said.
“A number of consortiums including Engro Corporation are working on that (using Thar coal for purposes other than power production),” Muneeb said.
Later on, Thar’s coal could be supplied to those power plants of the country that are utilising imported coal. The government is working on a project to connect Thar with different parts of the country through railways network to “ensure transportation of coal. We are already supplying coal from Thar to Lucky’s power project located in Karachi.”
At present, Pakistan is producing around 660 megawatt of power from Thar coal. “The power production from Thar coal would increase to 1,800-2,000 megawatt over the next one year (till February 2023),” he estimated.
The production would include coal from block-I and II. There are 13 blocks of coal in Thar and each is of a different size. SECMC operates only block-II.
Responding to a question, he said that the country might also consider the option of exporting the coal to India after fulfilling the local demand. At present, there is no direct trade between Pakistan and India.
“Nothing is above Pakistan’s sovereignty,” he said. “We will take guidance from Pakistan’s foreign policy (in future) and the leadership before considering to export Thar’s coal to India.”
Earlier, India showed its willingness to import coal from Pakistan, as it operates power plants having installed capacity of around 8,000 megawatt.
A portion of Thar coal is located in Rajasthan region (India). The coal reserves in Rajasthan were equivalent to 8% of Pakistan’s Thar coal. India has already utilised all the reserves for power production since 1950 till the recent past, Muneeb said.
Pakistan would consider the option to export coal after fulfilling its domestic needs. It is yet to offset the supply of imported coal.
“So far, we have saved foreign exchange worth over $200 million since we started the first-ever power project on Thar coal in July 2019,” he said.
SECMC has capacity to produce 5,800 MW of power from its block which “may or may not happen. So far, companies have achieved financial close only for 2,600 MW.”
The increased utililzation of coal can help reduce the country’s energy import bill which is around one-fourth of the total import bill in the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2022.
