Court summons petroleum secy, FIA director over crude oil theft.

PESHAWAR -- A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday summoned the federal petroleum secretary and Federal Investigation Agency regional director over a petition of Karak residents seeking cancellation of the licence of an international oil and gas exploration company over the alleged theft of crude oil.

Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali fixed Feb 2 for the next hearing into the joint petition of Mujahid Islam and 49 other residents of Banda Daud Shah tehsil.

The bench directed the petroleum secretary and FIA director to appear before it to respond to the claims made by petitioners.

The petitioners requested the court to declare that the people of Karak, Kohat and Hangu, whose properties and lands suffered damage and who faced health hazards and environmental degradation, are entitled to compensation by the provincial and federal governments.

Karak residents have sought cancellation of licence of exploration company

They also prayed the court to pronounce that the Federal Investigation Agency, law-enforcement agencies, federal and provincial revenue authorities, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, OGDCL, and federal and provincial anti-corruption bodies are involved in the oil and gas theft and other issues as they safeguard the interest of the exploration company.

Fazal Shah Mohmand and Moazzam Butt, lawyers for the petitioners, said that MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the MOL Plc, had started operations in Pakistan after it was awarded an exploration licence and a petroleum concession agreement was made in Feb 1999.

They alleged that the company claimed to be producing 8,000 barrel per day (BPD) of oil in the licensed area, whereas an inquiry conducted by the FIA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had found huge discrepancies and corrupt practices in the operation of the company as the production was more than 30,000 BPD.

The lawyers claimed that the matter was also taken up by the National Assembly standing committee on petroleum few years ago.

They added that a...