Pakistan Moves Closer to Energy Self-Reliance as OGDCL Starts New Oil Production

Karachi: Pakistan’s largest national oil and gas exploration company, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), has started regular production of crude oil from the Bobi Deep-1 well located in the Sanghar district of Sindh, which is being termed as a major development for the country’s energy sector.

According to a statement issued by the company on Monday, the well located in the Bobi and Dhamrki mining lease area is producing about 2,000 barrels of crude oil per day in the initial phase. This production is being obtained from the massive sand deposits of the Lower Goro Formation, where production activities were completed rapidly after the recent successful discovery.

To ensure timely completion of the project, OGDCL laid a flow line of about 1.5 km long and four inches in diameter in record time to connect the well to the Bobi processing plant, due to which the discovered reserves could be put into commercial use immediately.

The company said it has 100 percent working interest in the Bubi and Dhamrki mining leases, while all stages of planning, engineering, construction, installation and operation of the project were completed with the capabilities of local engineers and technicians, reflecting the self-reliance of national institutions.

According to experts, the new production will not only increase the local availability of crude oil in the country but will also help reduce dependence on imported oil, save foreign exchange and further strengthen the energy sector. The government has been calling the exploration and production of local reserves an important part of the national energy strategy for many years.

OGDCL has made progress on several new projects in the past few months. In April this year, the company started commercial production from the Baragzai X-01 (Salient) well located in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from where about 6,100 barrels of crude oil, 18 million cubic feet of gas and 50 tonnes of LPG are being obtained per day. This well is currently one of the company’s most productive projects.

Earlier in March, OGDCL set a new technical precedent in the domestic oil industry by starting production from Pakistan’s first successful horizontal oil well, Pasakhi-13, in the Hyderabad area.

Although the company’s profit during the first nine months of the last fiscal year recorded a decline due to some restrictions on production, significant progress was maintained in exploration and development activities. During the same period, the company drilled 10 new wells and also made eight new oil and gas discoveries, which are expected to further increase the country’s energy reserves in the future.

Energy sector observers say that if OGDCL continues to convert new discoveries into commercial production at its current pace, Pakistan’s energy sector will reap long-term benefits. Through effective use of local resources, modern technology and continuous investment, not only can dependence on imported fuel be reduced but also the country’s economy can get a significant boost.