OMV pledges $45m investment in Pakistan this year

Is producing 8% of total natural gas output in country

ISLAMABAD: While pledging to step up oil and gas exploration in Pakistan, Austria-based OMV has announced that it will pump $45 million into tapping hydrocarbon reserves this year to meet energy needs of the country.

“OMV has invested $2.5 billion in oil and gas exploration since commencing operations in 1991 in Pakistan and the company is investing $45 million this year,” OMV Aktiengesellschaft Executive Board Chairman and CEO Dr Rainer Seele said while addressing a ceremony held on Thursday to celebrate 25 years in Pakistan. Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also spoke at the event.



Recalling the company’s journey, the CEO said OMV started working in Pakistan 25 years ago and within two years it made the first discovery at Miano field in the Thar desert of Sindh. In 1998, it discovered gas at Sawan field, which is also located in Sindh.

From 1991 to date, the company has expanded operations from Sindh to Balochistan and Punjab.

At present, OMV is producing 8% of Pakistan’s total natural gas output and is increasing investment.

OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the largest international gas producer in Pakistan with a volume of more than 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan fields.

OMV CEO said parallel to the Sawan development work, the company also took over the Kadanwari gas processing plant in January 2003 from Lasmo, currently Eni.



OMV has remained quite aggressive in development work as capacity of the Kadanwari processing plant has been enhanced to 232 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while capacity of the Sawan plant has gone up to 400mmcfd.

“To further meet raw gas requirements, drilling has continued successfully in both fields,” he said.

Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while pointing to a huge gap between the demand and supply of gas, said they were striving to bridge the shortfall through import of liquefied natural gas and exploration of domestic oil and gas deposits.

He saw a big potential for tight, shale and conventional gas production in Pakistan and highlighted that the government was offering the most attractive wellhead oil and gas prices and asked international and local companies to take advantage of the situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2016.

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