Oil & Gas Exploration Efforts in Pakistan’s Offshore Area Continue to Disappoint

 Oil & Gas Exploration Efforts in Pakistan’s Offshore Area Continue to Disappoint 

Eighteen wells have been drilled so far in Pakistan offshore area, however, no oil and gas reserves have been discovered to date, revealed Petroleum Division.

Official documents seen by ProPakistani reveal that Pakistan Offshore is still under exploration by local companies, and there are two active exploration licenses. However, there is no firm commitment to the drilling of exploration wells during the calendar year 2021-22.

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:

1. ENI Pakistan Limited
2. BP Pakistan Exploration & Production
3. Total Exploration & Production
4. Petronas Carigali (Pakistan) Limited
5. Petrobars Oil & Gas Pakistan BV
6. Shell Development & Offshore Pakistan BV
7. Petro Canada
8. British Gas Exploration & Production Limited
9. Husky Oil (Pakistan) Inc.
10. Marathon Petroleum
11. Wintershall Holding GmbH
12. Premier Oil Pakistan Offshore BV
13. Niko Resources
14. ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Pakistan BV

Deep-sea oil and gas exploration requires extensive high-tech capabilities and entails huge financial resources. The initial exploratory efforts resulted in failure for deep-sea exploration.

The documents also revealed that the Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSOCL) and Pak-Arab Refinery Company Limited (PARCO) have stated that they are not aware of or in discussion with any party for any proposal to establish a refinery in Gwadar.

The Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) has also stated that currently there is not any proposal under consideration in Gwadar Port Authority regarding the establishment of an oil refinery.