Shell moves ahead with investment program, despite retail outlet bomb blasts

Shell Pakistan Ltd. (SPL), based in Karachi, said it plans to move ahead with its $20 million investment program this year despite 19 minor bomb blasts on its retail outlets in various parts of the city in the early hours of May 15.

May 30, 2003

2 min read

By an OGJ correspondent

KARACHI, May 30 -- Shell Pakistan Ltd. (SPL), based in Karachi, said it plans to move ahead with its $20 million investment program this year despite 19 minor bomb blasts on its retail outlets in various parts of the city in the early hours of May 15. This total compares with the $17 million spent by the Shell unit in 2002.

SPL will invest in its retail network, the quality of its road tankers, the standard and quality of its tankers, information technology safety, and its compressed natural gas service stations, it said.

The company will add 100 new gasoline pumps within Pakistan in addition to establishing 25 CNG stations this year, according to Farooq Rahmatullah, SPL chairman and managing director.

Shell currently has a total 1,200 service stations and 50 CNG stations in Pakistan. Rahmatullah said, "Our investment plans are still intact. There is no change in it. Certainly there will be no change or no cutback in investment plans despite an ugly incident of bomb blasts at the company's 19 retail outlets in a single day."

Rahmatullah added that the company is naturally concerned about peoples' lives because of the blasts but remains confident of Pakistan's economic future and to its positive developments in the oil sector.

He termed the blasts at retail outlets as a minor incident, saying that these kind of incidents also occur in various parts of the world but that they would definitely not affect company's investment plans. "It is up to the government to address the problem of law and order," he said, adding that security has been bolstered at the unit's headquarters as well as all of its retail stations. Law enforcement agencies have been in close contact with the company and monitoring the situation on daily basis, the company added.