The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has awarded 27 exploration licences under the new Petroleum Policy 2012 and will award another 20 licences within the next three months.

A senior official of the ministry told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the Ministry was making all-out efforts to explore local oil/gas reservoirs and in this connection work on offshore drilling would also start within a year.

The official said that under the new petroleum policy the government had approved attractive incentives for the investors which included gas wellhead price for onshore at $6 per Million British Thermal Unit (MMBTU), $7 per MMBTU offshore-shallow and $9 per MMBTU for deep offshore.

Under the new Petroleum Policy, so far, investors had made an investment of $148 million, the official said and added that the investors had welcomed the incentives given by the government. Keeping in view the energy crisis, the ministry had directed the quarters concerned to expedite drilling activities and by the end of 2012 Pakistan would have up to 1,000 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) gas, sources added.

At present, the country is facing a gas shortfall of 2 Billion Cubic Feet per Day (BCFD) and by the end of December 2012 it will be reduced by one BCFD.

Moreover, the public sector gas exploration and production company Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) during the on-going financial year has so far operated in 34 exploration blocks, which resulted in two oil/gas discoveries during first half of 2012.

OGDCL has already completed Phase-I of Kunnar-Pasaki gas field with a natural gas production of 100 MMCFD and 1,000 barrels per day of crude oil and 15 MMCFD gas from Badin gas field will be added to the system within the next few weeks.

Work on the phase-II of the project is under implementation, the field has a capacity to produce a cumulative 284 MMCFD of gas, 4,400 barrels per day of crude oil, 400 barrels per day of NGL and 387 M.Tons per day of LPG by February 2014.

Sinjhoro development project will be completed in two phases. The first phase will be completed by June 2012 and the second phase will be completed by December 2012 adding a cumulative production of 3,000 barrels per day of crude oil, 25 MMCFD gas and 120 ton per day production of LPG.

About 15 MMCFD gas is expected from Jhal Magsi development project which is anticipated to be completed in February 2013.

Under Uch-II development project, drilling of fifteen (15) planned wells for the project has been completed and after the completion of project 160 MMCFD gas would be added to the system.

Nashpa development project is expected to be completed by May 2013 and is anticipated to produce 60-80 MMCFD of gas and 140-160 tons of LPG per day. Mela project is expected to be completed by June 2013 and upon its completion, production of 18 MMCFD of gas and 40-50 tons per day of LPG is expected.

SOURCE: BUSINESS RECORDER