ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources last year had assigned the task to state-owned companies – Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) – for launching a pilot project in three to four months to determine the cost of extracting shale gas and oil after identification of their massive reserves, but no significant headway has been made to this end.
A study, completed in cooperation with the USAID, had confirmed presence of 10,159 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of shale gas and 2,323 billion stock tank barrels (BSTB) of shale oil across the country.
Following this, the ministry directed the OGDCL and PPL to prepare a pilot project to launch in selected areas of Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within the given time. The project was scheduled to start in March this year, but it was delayed due to technical reasons. “At present, there is no significant development in the project,” a source privy to the project said.
According to the study, there are 188 TCF gas and 58 BSTB oil is available in technically recoverable resources, while the risked technically recoverable resources stand at 95 TCF gas and 14 BSTB oil.
The study covered lower and middle Indus Basin, which is geographically spread over Sindh, southern parts of Punjab and eastern parts of Balochistan. The total area under the study was 271,700 kilometres, which is 33 percent of total sedimentary area of the country.
During the study, a detailed analysis of 124 wells was carried out, including laboratory analysis on shale cores and cuttings in the United States.
Objectives of the study were to validate shale gas resources, estimate initial findings, assess availability of required technology and infrastructure for shale gas operations and formulate guidelines for the shale gas policy.
The study had further confirmed that basic technology required for shale gas exploration – horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – was available in the country and being used for conventional and tight gas reservoirs.
