Pakistan is discussing with the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (part of the Chinese coal giant Shenhua Group) to develop a coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in the Thar region of the Sindh province. The company has already developed a CTL project in the northwestern Chinese region of Ningxia, which can produce 4 Mt/year of coal-derived diesel.
Shenhua Group had already expressed its interest in tapping the large coal resources of the Thar field and planned to develop two 350 MW coal-fired power plants in the region; the projects were cancelled after the Pakistan's previous government decided to revise downward the already decided tariff rates for the power generation.
Thar coal reserves are estimated at 185 Gt. Pakistan plans to reach 20 GW of coal-fired power capacity by 2030 under its "Vision 2030" programme. Rising oil demand would also justify the development of CTL.