The News reported that Oil and Gas Development Company Limited of Pakistan expects to increase output by as much as 20% in 2011 to 2012 after adding resources in the country’s northwest.
Mr Basharat Mirza MD of OGDCL said that “New oil and gas discoveries will certainly increase our profitability. I expect 15% to 20% addition to our oil and gas production this year.”
OGDCL, the largest company on Karachi Stock Exchange, reported a gas find this week at Nashpa-2 well in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The discovery may help boost energy supplies at a time when factories are facing 3 days a week without gas.
Mr Mirza said that the company plans to spend USD 270 million on drilling some 27 new wells this financial year. It expects to produce 10 million to 12 million cubic feet of gas a day at Nashpa-2 and 5,000 barrels of oil. An increase in domestic energy supplies may help boost South Asia’s second biggest economy which has been hurt by terrorism and dwindling foreign investment.
Mr Mirza said that as it expands in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, OGDCL has limited its exploration in Balochistan province where attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure have disrupted gas supplies. OGDCL has taken all low hanging fruit and is left with difficult areas that include Baluchistan and offshore blocks that require huge investment. At its Zin block in Balochistan, OGDCL plans to produce its first gas flows in the next 4 weeks to gather data on the reservoir.
He said that the block holds an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. It also expects a further 100 million cubic feet a day from a well in Tando Allah Yar in Sindh by December after completing a pipeline. Further infrastructure at the field would allow an increase in output capacity to 400 million cubic feet a day. The company is pressing ahead with its investment plan even as domestic oil refineries and gas distributors fail to pay for supplies.
Mr Asim Hussain petroleum minister of Pakistan said that Pakistan is preparing for a gas shortfall of 1.05 billion cubic feet a day by February. That may exacerbate daily power cuts which have forced textile and engineering plants to close and caused riots across the country.
(Sourced from www.thenews.com.pk)
