Set for drilling: Pakistan aims for 100 new wells this year
Pakistan sets 100 wells goal
Pakistan aims to drill 100 oil and gas exploratory wells this year to meet growing domestic and industrial needs, a top government petroleum official said today.
Pakistan produces about 69,000 barrels of oil and nearly four billion cubic feet of gas per day and spends more than $6.5 billion a year on petroleum imports.
Oil accounted for 28% of total imports worth $39.95 billion in the first 11 months of the 2007/08 (July-June) financial year, according to the Finance Ministry.
"I am looking at a figure of 100 ... This year I want to see 100 wells," Reuters quoted Asim Hussain, adviser to the prime minister on petroleum, as telling a news conference.
A total of 52 wells, 14 drilled by state companies and 38 by private companies were drilled during first nine months of the 2007-08 fiscal year to March, according to government figures.
About 25 companies, 15 of them foreign, are engaged in oil and gas exploration in Pakistan and officials hope to attract more foreign investment.
Pakistan attracted $836 million in foreign direct investment in the oil and gas sector in the 2007/08 fiscal year, while it attracted $372.2 million of inflows in the first six months of the 2008/09 fiscal year to December.
Hussain said offshore drilling had also been started and foreign companies exploring were hoping for big gas reserves that would help meet growing domestic demand.
Domestic gas consumption rose to 41% of total energy consumption in 2006-07 from 29% a decade earlier, according to the latest government figures.
Hussain said the state-run Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum were in talks with foreign companies to set up joint oil ventures overseas.