ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division (PD) has planned to auction 27 newExploration and Production (E&P) blocks for stepping up oil and gasdrilling activities in different hydrocarbon potential areas of the country.
“The advertisement for the award of 20 E&P blocks will be given in thefirst week of October, while seven offshore blocks will be offered inDecember,” a senior official privy to petroleum sector developments toldAPP.
The official said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government wasfully aware of the prevailing energy situation in the country and takingall possible measures to meet the existing and future needs in the oil andgas sector in an efficient manner.
“The country’s total sedimentary area is around 827,268 square kilometres,out of which 320,741 km or 39pc of the area was under exploration,” he said.
The official said the country’s existing gas reserves were depleting at therate of 9.5 per cent annually and unfortunately, E&P companies have made nosignificant discovery since long.
Currently, he said, local gas production was around 3.7 Billion Cubic Feet(BCF) per day against the demand of six BCF/day.
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“The previous government did not award even a single E&P block during itsfive-year tenure due to which the gap between demand and supply of gascontinues to increase gradually,” he added.
Cognizant of the situation, the official said the PTI government, aftercoming into power, had started bidding round in September 2018 andsubsequently awarded almost 10 new E&P blocks to expedite drillingactivities.
It may be mentioned here that a new block takes almost four to five yearsin producing any result as it involves different phases including studies,testing, drilling, and installation of processing plans and pipelines.
