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Pakistani upstream buoyed by new onshore discoveries
State-owned POL has revealed that new reserves at one of the country’s biggest elds will enter production before the end of the year, boosting a beleaguered sector
COMMENTARY
WHAT:
Pakistan’s oil and gas production is in decline.
WHY:
Investment in the country’s upstream has been limited owing to ongoing violence.
WHAT NEXT:
The country wants to offer 35 onshore blocks this year.
TESTING of two new discoveries at one of Pakistan’s most proli c blocks has provided a much-needed boost to the country’s beleaguered upstream.
State-owned Pakistan Oil elds Ltd (POL) revealed last week that Hungarian operator MOL’s discoveries in the onshore TAL block, rst announced in June, had derisked deeper exploration of the play and would help to improve the country’s energy security.
e news comes as the country looks for ways to boost oil and gas production, which has been declining steadily for a number of years.
Gas output peaked at 36.6bn cubic metres in 2012, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019, before falling steadily to 34.2 bcm in 2018. Crude production, mean- while, topped out at 94,000 barrels per day in 2014 before contracting to 89,500 bpd in 2018, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
While MOL’s discoveries will bring much- needed extra supplies to the domestic market, they should also helped boost interest in the
country’s next onshore exploration bid round planned for this year. ey should also help to dispel some of the gloom that has set in over Pakistan’s general upstream prospects after Eni reported a dry hole at a much anticipated ultra-deepwater well in the Arabian Sea in May.
Good news
POL, which has a pre-commerciality working interest of 25% in the block, said initial testing of the Makori Deep-02 well had delivered 1,844 bpd of oil and 18.25mn cubic feet (517,000 cubic metres) per day of gas. While commercial production is expected to start in December, company secretary Khalid Nafees said: “Actual production may di er signi cantly from the test results.”
The 4,643-square km block, which is located in the Kohat Plateau of Khyber Pakh- tunkhwa Province, produces 21,200 bpd of oil and 290 mmcf (8.21 mcm) per day of gas, according to MOL’s website.
MOL has a 10.53% working interest in the licence during the exploration phase, with this dropping to 8.42% in commercially producing
The MOL-operated TAL block.
Image: MOL
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 34 28•August•2019