Page 6 - AsianOil Week 05
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fuel to account for 15% of the country’s energy basket by 2030 compared with slightly more than 6% at present.
In order to facilitate this uptick, Sithraman also unveiled plans to expand the country’s gas pipeline grid from 16,200km at present to 27,000km, though no timeline was given. Add- ing new infrastructure will also help companies monetise domestic gas fields – both conven- tional and unconventional – that have been viewed as unpro table.
Essar Exploration & Production’s CFO and head of strategy, Pankaj Kalra, told the Economic Times: “As conventional hydrocarbon resources are dwindling and new resource accretions are few and far between, unconventional hydrocar- bons, like [coal-bed methane] CBM and shale gas, will assume greater signi cance.”
He added: “ e gas grid expansion, coupled with the liberal policies introduced over the last few years, will revive investor con dence in the upstream sector.”
e Indian government will be hoping that proves true, given that its latest upstream bid rounds have failed to elicit much investor inter- est from companies not already active on the ground.
India launched its Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) in June 2017 as part of the broader Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), which replaced the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). OALP allows com- panies to propose boundaries of blocks they are interested in bidding for a er having evaluated India’s National Data Repository (NDR). Each of the government’s four rounds under OALP, how- ever, have been dominated by Indian companies, with Vedanta, state-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) and ONGC snapping up the lion’s share of the 94 blocks o ered.
The country has just launched its fifth OALP bid round (OALP-V), adopting even more attractive rules that were introduce in OALP-IV.
MPCL, POL win Pakistani licence
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
THE Pakistani Petroleum Division has awarded a petroleum concession agreement (PCA) and exploration licence for the onshore Taung block to Pakistan Oil elds Ltd (POL) and Mari Petro- leum Company Ltd (MPCL).
Under the agreement signed on January 31, the partners have agreed to invest at least $6.17mn in the 151-square km block during an initial three-year work period.
MPCL and POL, which own 60% and 40% of the block respectively, have also committed to spending $30,000 per year on social welfare schemes in the surrounding area. The acreage is located at the city of Jamshoro in Sindh Province.
Pakistani Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan said the PCA was a positive development that “was in line with the ongoing energy sector reforms agenda of the government”. Khan added that the licence was part of the government’s goal of promoting exploration and development of the country’s natural resources to meet growing energy demand.
MPCL said in a press statement that the block was located in Pakistan’s Zone-III region, which is the Lower Indus Basin, and lay to the south of “signi cant gas discoveries”.
e government has divided Pakistan into three onshore zones and one offshore area based on investment requirements and risk. Zone-III is considered the most prospective of the country’s zones.
While MPCL controls one of the country’s largest gas elds – Mari, which is also located in Sindh – it has operated and non-operated inter- ests in hydrocarbons plays across the country.
In an interview with Global Village Space in early January, MPCL managing director Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad said the company was expand- ing its exploration e orts to parts of the coun- try that had previously been deemed too risky because of security concerns.
e executive said: “ e security situation has, in recent years, substantially improved in Baluchistan and [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] FATA, and we have taken the lead – Mari has. Several areas were under what you call ‘force majeure’ conditions for the last 10 or 15 years. We have taken it upon ourselves on the direc- tion of the government and the military that we undertake projects in areas where previously there was militancy. We are working in the Balochistan block because the security situation has improved.”
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 05 05•February•2020
