ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Senate was told that 18 wells have been drilled so far in Pakistan’s offshore area; however, no oil and gas reserves have been discovered till to date.
In a written reply to a question by Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, the Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar told the House on Friday that Pakistan’s offshore is still under exploration by local companies and there are two active exploration licences; however, there is no firm commitment of drilling of exploration well during the Calendar Year 2021-22.
The minister told that the government of Pakistan has engaged previously a number of international companies for deep-sea exploration of oil and gas in Pakistan.
As a result of holistic efforts, the following exploration and Production Companies have started exploratory activities in Pakistan’s offshore oil and gas sector:-
- ENI Pakistan Limited
- BP Pakistan Exploration & Production
- Total Exploration & Production
- Petronas Carigali (Pakistan) Limited
- Petrobars Oil & Gas Pakistan BV
- Shell Development & Offshore Pakistan BV
- Petro Canada
- British Gas Exploration & Production Limited
- Husky Oil (Pakistan) Inc.
- Marathon Petroleum
- Wintershall Holding GmbH
- Premier Oil Pakistan Offshore BV
- Niko Resources
- Exxonmobile Exploration & Production Pakistan BV
The House was apprised that the deep-sea oil and gas exploration requires extensive high-tech capabilities and entails huge financial resources while the initial exploratory efforts resulted in failure for deep-sea exploration.
Also Read: 13 gas exploration licenses granted in 2021
