ISLAMABAD : The government has granted exploration rights of six blocks to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Pakistan Oil Field (POL) while these entities have made minimum firm work commitment of $25.42 million. The blocks located in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces.
The Licences/agreements were signed by Mahmood Salim Mahmood, Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mohammad Naeem Malik, Director General Petroleum Concessions, Shah Mahboob Alam, Managing Director, OGDCL, Khalid Rehman, Managing Director, PPL and Sajid Nawaz, Chief Executive Officer, POL.
Addressing a signing ceremony, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar said that government was pursuing some projects to explore other prospects like import of LNG from Qatar and Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project to meet the country's gas requirements.
"The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has sent a summary to Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet regarding the import of LNG from Qatar along with establishment of a terminal," Minister maintained. About Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project, the Minister said that final agreement was likely to be signed in next two months to initiate work on laying the pipeline.
Minister said that government was aggressively pursuing Exploration and Production (E&P) of oil and gas and licensing of 37 blocks have been issued to explore indigenous oil and gas reserves. "After June 2010, another round of auction for new blocks would be made in a bid to meet country's requirements in oil and gas, minister added.
He said that demand for natural gas has increased too much in recent past that was why the government was resorting to gas load management. The government is also trying its level best to meet gas demand from internal as well as external sources.
About high prices of gas, the minister said that Pakistani gas is cheaper as compared to prices in rest of the world saying that it should be equitable otherwise the gas discovering areas would be deprived of their due share. The minister said that penalty would be imposed on those E&P companies who could not complete work in time.
According to a statement issued here, major part of Lakhi Rud Block is located in District Loralai, Balochistan province whereas Mari East block is located in District Ghotki, Sindh province. PPL's Blocks Kharan and Kharan East are located in District Kharan, Balochistan province. POL's Blocks Rajanpur is located in District Rajanpur whereas DG Khan Block is mainly located in District DG Khan, Punjab province.
The total area of the six blocks is 13599 sq-km and the companies have made minimum firm work commitment of US $25.42 million. The Federal Minister directed the authorities to closely monitor the progress of work on these blocks to ensure in time completion of exploration work. Besides work on other exploration blocks has also been expedited with the objective to enhance share of locally produced oil and gas, which at present is around 52 percent of primary energy supply.
He said that the present government has promulgated Petroleum Policy 2009 providing liberal incentives to the E&P Companies to attract investment and to accelerate exploration of hydrocarbon with the clear objective to increase the domestic oil and gas production and to reduce burden of imported energy.
Naveed Qamar, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources had earlier directed to expedite exploration and to sign at least 35 licenses and Concession Agreements within three months period and made all possible efforts to bring the discoveries into production for addressing immediate energy needs of public.
In the light of the minister's directions, the Ministry has already signed two licenses/PCAs on December 24, 2009 and now another six licenses/ PCAs are being signed with three E & P companies, including two public and one private sector company.
OGDCL holds the largest share of Oil (46pc) & Gas (35pc) of the total reserves in the country. Its percentage share of total Oil & Gas production in Pakistan is 57pc and 23pc, respectively. In addition, OGDCL is the Operator in thirty five exploration licences and is working interest owner in 7 other exploration blocks operated by various E & P companies. OGDCL is currently producing 36,891 barrels of Oil, 737 MMCF of gas, 142 M. tonnes of LPG and 72 M Tonnes of Sulphur per day. Today OGDCL signed two Licences/PCAs for Blocks No 3068-4 (Lakhi Rud) and 2769-16 (Mari East).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2010
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