Report by Engineering Post
For years, Pakistan’s largest state owned oil and gas exploration and production company , Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) was suffering from a problem which would otherwise have been sounded as quite absurd in any normal energy market. It had both oil and gas available underground, wells capable of producing more and yet it was being forced to hold back oil and gas production domestically as the country somehow had locked itself into imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts which the pipeline system could not absorb fully.
According to the information available from the official quarters concerned, this equation was now undergoing a welcome change. The Middle East conflict caused by US-Israel coalition attack on Iran and the subsequent disruption of LNG flows from Gulf region had turned Pakistan’s imported gas surplus into a shortage risk thereby easing pressure on domestic fields just as the OGDCL was now trying to increase crude oil production to levels which had not been seen or noticed in years together. Earlier, Pakistan had been selling or diverting excess imported imported cargoes and also shutting domestic wells in order to avoid excess pressure in the gas network, while both the Gulf countries Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) together accounted for almost all of the country’s LNG imports for quite some time.
As per available facts and figures, the OGDCL’s oil and gas production during the first quarter of the calendar year had crossed 40 thousand barrels per day for the first time in about six and half years which was mainly helped by the addition of Baragzai, which was contributing around 6000 barrels per day.
