Islamabad
Amid elevated coal prices in the international market, which have been hovering around $230 per metric tonne, the government has set a target to produce around 6,900,000 tonnes of coal during the current fiscal year to meet national energy needs.
A senior official privy to the petroleum sector developments told the state-run news agency, APP, that after achieving the target of producing 3,800,000 tonnes of coal last fiscal year successfully, the government set the ambitious target for the current fiscal year.
He said that the local and imported coal collectively has around 19.2 percent share in the energy mix requirements of the country.
Commenting on a newly-discovered coal deposits in Badin and adjoining areas of Southern Sindh, the official said geological experts are in the process of compiling a technical report based on the initial analysis of samples collected from the field.
“The chemical analysis shows the quality of coal is lignite, comparable with the Thar coal quality,” he said, adding that the project is prepared and being executed to discover the coal resources under alluvium cover in Badin and surrounding areas through drilling activities.
The thickness of coal seams ranging from 2.30 metres as thickest to 0.17 metres as the thinnest coal seam, adding a total of 78 coal seams .—TLTP
