Page 5 - AsianOil Week 34
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AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil
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Data: BP
Pakistan's gas split
discoveries. e Makori deep and Tolanj West discoveries, which have increased the total number of nds in the block to nine, are the rst there since 2015.
MOL is not alone in celebrating onshore success, however. In July, Oil and Gas Devel- opment Co. (OGDC) announced an oil dis- covery at the onshore Bitrism block in Sindh Province. OGDC owns a 95% operating inter- est in the permit, while the state holds the remaining 5%. e Pandhi 01 exploration well reached 11,800 feet (3,597 metres) and tested at 9 mmcf (255,000 cubic metres) per day of gas and 520 bpd.
Both MOL and OGDC’s success will be welcomed by the country’s energy planners a er Eni’s disappointing results.
Deepwater miss
Eni spudded the deepwater well in the Indus G Block in January, with reported plans to invest more than PKR41bn ($258.1mn) in the field if drilling was successful. US super-major Exxon- Mobil, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) and OGDC were partners in the well, which carried a pre-drill resource estimate of around 1.5bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), according to Rystad Energy.
In the weeks before drilling operations were wrapped up, Prime Minister Imran Khan talked up the block’s potential to change the country’s energy prospects. He said in March that there could be a “very big reserve in our waters” that would put the country into “a di erent league”.
While dry holes are a regular event in offshore exploration, the move to politi- cise the well’s outcome has back red on the government.
“It was very unwise on [the government’s] part to make such statements,” the for- mer-CEO of OGDC, Masood Siddiqui, said at the time. Senior Rystad analyst Palzor Shenga, meanwhile, warned that the results from the estimated $100mn drilling campaign would cast a long shadow over future o shore licens- ing rounds.
What next
MOL and OGDC’s onshore efforts will help the country boost production and reserves,
slowing a growing dependence on foreign energy supplies.
Pakistan’s lack of access to the interna- tional gas market e ectively capped consump- tion levels until March 2015, when country received its rst LNG via the oating storage and regasi cation unit (FSRU) Exquisite. In the years that followed more import capacity was added, allowing consumption to reach 43.58 bcm in 2018.
Pakistan’s Oil & Gas Regulatory Author- ity (OGRA) has estimated that demand amounted to 6.9bn cubic feet (195.41mn cubic metres) per day in nancial year 2017-2018.
Managing director and chief executive of Pakistan LNG Adnan Gilani said in April that demand for LNG could climb from nearly 7mn tonnes in 2018 to 15mn tonnes in 2019 and up to 30mn tonnes over the next three to ve years.
While Pakistani energy demand has been driven up by a sharp population rise, now at 208 million people, foreign investment in the upstream has been scant. International oil companies (IOCs) have been avoiding the country owing to continued militant violence.
But with 41% of the country’s power gener- ated from imported fuels in 2018, according to Pakistan’s Task Force on Energy Reforms, the government understands that more must be done to attract investors back.
e head of the energy task force, Nadeem Babar, said in April that the country intended to auction more than 30 onshore gas blocks by the end of the year. He speci ed in July that the government had picked 35 licences for auction, though there has been no news on a timeline as yet. Babar also said that the gov- ernment would set up a special security force to guard onshore oil and gas developments.
Reconfirmation of Pakistan’s onshore potential helps to take some of the sting out of the government’s stumble in the o shore, but it is unlikely to be enough to encourage IOCs to commit to the country alone. Islama- bad needs to demonstrate that it can secure the areas where it will expect foreign oil workers to operate. If it cannot, then the country will have little choice but to continue leaning on foreign energy providers.
Week 34 28•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P5
bcm per year
