Following an effective methodology adopted by the government, exploration and production (E&P) companies have restarted oil and gas exploration activities in the militancy-infested Kohlu-Dera Bugti area of Balochistan. The government has of late adopted an effective strategy to tap Pakistan''s biggest gas reserves of about 22 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) in the Kohlu-Dera Bugti area of Balochistan, which have the potential commercial value of $110 billion and realistic value of $77 billion and will last for 100 years.
"We are currently making a strategy for initiating gas exploration in district Kohlu and other potential areas with huge oil and gas reserves after a long wait for easing of the tension and armed resistance of the followers of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti following his killing in a military operation on August 26, 2006," a senior government official told Business Recorder here on Thursday.
The new chief of Mari tribe Nawab Changez Khan Mari, Mir Jam Kamal Khan, State Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, and PML-N Balochistan chapter chief Sardar Sanaullah Zehri have played an effective role in normalising the situation, which has enabled the E&P companies like state-run OGDCL, Mari Petroleum Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) to restart operations in the region," the official added.
"The US-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation prepared a seismic report of Kohlu district costing $20 million in 1992-93 and confided to the then government that the area has the potential gas reserves of 22 trillion cubic feet, which is enough for the next 100 years. But tension between Nawab Akber Bugti and the then regime had led to the stoppage of the initiation of exploration activities.
Out of the 22 TFC, the official said, 15 TFC gas reserves are easily recoverable. Kohlu district is located some 20 kilometers from Sui, where gas reserves of eight TFC were discovered some 50 years back. Pakistan has so far utilised only five TFC of gas reserves of the Sui gas field in 50 years while five TFC gas reserves are yet to be utilised. In the past, the government failed to launch exploration activities in Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Barkhan areas of the Balochistan because of the armed resistance by the followers of Nawab Bugti.
The government has awarded an exploration license to the Oil and Gas Company Limited (OGDCL) on December 29, 2004 of Block No 2968-3 of Kohlu covering an area of 2459.11 sq km, located in Kohlu and Dera Bugti agencies, district Barkhan of Balochistan. The block falls in the prospective Zone-II, Kohlu. This is a joint venture of the OGDCL and MGCL with working interest shares: OGDCL: 60 percent (Operator) and MGCL: 40 percent.
OGDCL had constructed an 80-kilometer long road which connected Kup -a far-flung area of Kohlu- with the main highway to start the exploration activities in the area, official said and added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is personally monitoring the situation and has directed the OGDCL and other companies to materialise these projects as early as possible. For the exploration activities, the government has not only engaged local politicians and tribal leaders but has also started a number of health, education, socio-economic projects for welfare of the locals.
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