Pakistan can substantially curtail its oil import bill, turn the wheel of the economy, create thousands of new jobs and in the process; it can also alleviate poverty to some extent if it opts for the commercial exploitation and industrial use of its vast coal reserves.

Pakistan’s lignite coal reserves – proven, indicated and inferred, exceed 184,656 million tons, which are many times more than the total reserves of oil and natural gas put together. Despite being one of the biggest sources of fuel reserves, the indigenous coal largely remains untapped and unutilised for want of determination, which seems to have been sapped by the international oil lobby.

Holding the vested interests responsible for this sorry state of affairs, Sindh Chief Minister Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim, addressing a seminar on Thar coal, on October 30, underlined the need for announcing an upfront tariff reasonable enough to attract investment in coal-based energy projects, shunning the hackneyed negative approach where the quarters concerned are “prepared to offer over 13 cents on furnace oil and 10 to 12 cents for wind and sugar mills but not willing to accept 7 to 9.5 cents for coal.”

Pakistan’s biggest coalfield lies in Thar (Sindh) where the coal reserves are estimated to be over 175,506 million tons. Seven other coal fields in Sindh have 8,617 million tons of coal reserves. These include Lakhra, Sonda-Thatta, Jherruck, Oagar, Indus East, Meting Jhimper and Badin with reserves of 1,328 million tons, 3,700 million tons, 1,323 million tones, 312 million tons, 1,777 million tons, 161 million tons and 16 Million tons respectively.

Other major fields in the country contain reserves of over 533 million tons. These include Khost-Sharig-Harnai, Sor-Range-Degari, Mach-Abagum, Duki and Pir Ismail Ziarat in Balochistan with reserves of 76 million tons, 34 million tons, 23 million tons and 12 million tons respectively; Salt Range and Makerwal-Gullakhel in Punjab with reserves of 234 million tons and 22 million tons respectively; and Hangu in NWFP with a reserve of 81 million tons. In addition to these major fields, there exist minor coal deposits at Badiuzai, Bahol, Bala Chaka, Bhalgor, Johan, Kachh, and Margot in Balochistan; Cherat in NWFP; Choi in Punjab; Khilla (near Muzaffarabad) and Kotli in Azad Kashmir.

In 2000, the government announced plans to switch over the industrial and other projects running on thermal power to gas by early 2003, thus reducing the need and dependence on the imported furnace oil. Pakistan needs over eight million tons of furnace oil annually for industrial use, primarily for production of thermal power also for use by the process industries like cement and sugar, but the country’s indigenous production of furnace oil is limited to about two million tons a year. It meets the deficit by importing furnace oil at a high cost.

The strategy, claimed the then Chief Executive (now President) General Pervez Musharraf, at a press conference in Lahore on October 10, 2000, aimed at reducing the furnace oil import bill and also checking the rising cost of electricity production. The government also constituted a task force to develop the coal industry in Sindh where the country’s bulk of the coal reserves exist. Headed by CE General Pervez Musharraf, the members of the task force included Sindh Governor, Federal Minister for Production and representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Board of Investment and WAPDA.

Earlier, the same year, the then Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Usman Aminuddin announced that coal fired electricity generating plants of 3,000 megawatts will be installed in Thar over the next eight years, while 240 megawatts of electricity will be generated from coal reserves in Sonda and Jherruck. After 10 years, he said, the government planned to meet 20 per cent of its total demand for energy through coal.

The Minister’s optimism seems to have been based on the interest shown by a couple of foreign companies, including two from China and one from the USA, in setting-up coal based thermal power stations in the country. However, for one reason or the other, they lost their interest with the result that no tangible progress seems to have been made in that direction so far.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has invested over three billion rupees in Thar development projects to promote investment there. Today, even the remotest corner in the district – Nagar Parkar, is linked with Karachi, and over 29 Reverse Osmosis units will shortly become functional in Thar, providing pure water both for use by the local community as well as the industry.

In addition to power generation and use of coal in process industries, like cement and sugar production, it can also replace kerosene oil and firewood as domestic fuel and thus save the precious forest wealth from depletion. 

China meets 80 per cent of its energy needs from coal, US 60 per cent, India 40 per cent, while globally 38 per cent power was generated through coal. However, Pakistan was currently hardly producing five per cent of power through coal.

Taking the year 2000 as base, the global energy demand was expected to increase by 50 per cent by the year 2020 and a large portion of that demand, about 50-60 per cent in Asia, according to experts, will be met from coal. In fact, clean coal technologies are now making coal more attractive and it is no longer considered to be a dirty fuel.

Further, oil and gas reserves available in Pakistan are expected to last for only 8-9 years and 20 years respectively, whereas the coal reserves are expected to last for over 100 years. The estimated value of Pakistan’s coal reserves was about 5,540 billion dollars.

 Coal formation

Coal is formed under shallow water from the decomposition of plant material through a complex process, which takes millions of years of heat, pressure and bacterial action. The first step towards coal formation is peat, which may be formed only in a few million years’ time, while lignite and sub-bituminous formations usually occur in tertiary geological age, ranging from 50 to 60 million years and bituminous to anthracite coals may be created in 260 to 300 million years. Pakistani coal deposits belong to the tertiary age and their quality varies from lignite to sub-bituminous.

 Initiation of coalmining

The introduction of the railways in the South Asia Sub-continent created the demand for indigenous coal. One of the first efforts for obtaining the local coal was made by the colonial government when it took up coalmining operations in the Salt Range in Punjab. By the end of the 19th century, several coal deposits were identified both in Punjab and Baluchistan. However, mining operations here remained limited and the total coal production in Pakistan was less than 200,000 tons during 1947-48.

In spite of large-scale industrialisation in Pakistan during 1947-1960, the annual coal production in the country remained limited to 400,000 tons up to 1960-61. At that juncture, the authorities felt that the country would need 1.5 million tons of coal annually by 1965. For achieving this target, the government initiated necessary measures which, amongst others, included liberal tax concessions and incentives for importing mining machinery and trucks. The private sector took advantage of these concessions and production by it alone increased to 1.50 million tons of coal during the year 1965-66 against a target of 0.40 million tons. However, the public sector failed to achieve its targets.