ISLAMABAD – During the last five years, over two dozen oil and gascompanies have spent around Rs. 400 billion in carrying out Exploration andProduction (E&P) activities in different areas of Pakistan.
The main purpose of this extensive exploration and production was toincrease the national hydrocarbon base.
According to official data available with APP, the following companies werepart of the exploration programs:
– Dewan Petroleum, – Eni Pakistan, – Hycarbex, – MOL Pakistan, – MPCL, – Al-Haj, – Nativus, – New Horizon, – OGDCL, – OGIL, – Tallahassee, – OMV, – OPL, – PAIGE, – OMV Maurice, – PEL, – POL, – POGC, – PPL, – KPBV, – RDC, – Saif Energy, – Tullow, – UEPL – Chian ZhenHua
As per the data, both the public and private sector firms utilized fundsamounting to:
– Rs. 77.432 billion in 2013-14 – Rs. 91.722 billion in 2014-15 – Rs. 92.853 billion in 2015-16 – Rs. 67.974 billion in 2016-17 – Rs. 70.314 billion in 2017-18
During the five-year period, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited(OGDCL) and MOL Pakistan have collectively produced around 80.345 MillionBarrel (MBL) oil and 700,885 Million Cubic Feet (MMCFT) gas from threedistricts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The companies extracted 14.856 MBL oil from their respective Mardankhel,Maramzai, Nashpa, Manzalai, Makori Deep, Makori East, Makori, Chanda, Mela,Mamikhel, Tolanj and Tolang West fields of Hangu, Karak and Kohat districtsin 2013-14.
The production from the given years is given below:
– 16.279 MBL oil in 2014-15 – 15.851 MBL oil in 2015-16 – 17.014 MBL oil in 2016-17 – 16.344 MBL oil in 2017-18
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Similarly, the OGDCL and MOL Pakistan pulled out 700,885 MMCFT gas fromtheir respective operational areas of the districts during the period underreview.
The E&P firms produced:
– 135,129.02 MMCFT gas in 2013-14 – 131,207.15 MMCFT gas in 2014-15 – 139,255.21 MMCFT gas in 2015-16 – 144,116.48 MMCFT gas in 2016-17 – 151,177.59 MMCFT gas in 2017-18.
A senior official said that the government was pursuing a prudent strategyto step up oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas of thecountry. Under these, the Petroleum Division of Energy Ministry is planningto initiate the open bidding process for 27 newly identified explorationblocks in December this year. “The process will be completed in threerounds.”
The government, during its first year in power, had awarded five newexploration blocks through a transparent bidding process, whereas theprevious government did not award even a single block during its five-yearterm, he said.
The official said the government had made some policy changes to facilitatenew companies in the E&P sector, abolishing 10 unnecessary steps, out of24-30, required for getting approval to start drilling activities inpotential areas.
He further said that the country’s total sedimentary area was around827,268 square kilometers at present. Out of this 320,741 KM was underexploration.
Quoting a recent study about fast depletion of existing hydrocarbonreservoirs in the country, he feared that the deposits would furtherdeplete by 60 percent by the year 2027 and underlined the need foraccelerating exploration activities in potential areas on a war-footingbasis.
