OGDCL announces second gas reserve discovery in a week

Newly tested well was in Sanghar district of Sindh

KARACHI: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) seems to be on a lucky streak as the company has announced the second discovery of oil and gas reserves in Sindh within the span of one week.

The leading oil and gas firm said the new discovery was made from a newly tested well, Bitrism West 01-A, which is located in District Sanghar, Sindh, according to a bourse filing.

“The well has tested 290 barrel per day of condensate (crude oil) and 4.3 million standard cubic feet per day of gas,” said OGDC company secretary Ahmed Hayat Lak in a notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange.



OGDCL is the operator of the Bitrism Block with 95% stake. Government Holdings (Pvt.) Limited (GHPL) owns the rest of the 5% stake in the block.

“The discovery has opened up a new avenue and would add hydrocarbon reserve base of OGDCL and GHPL,” the notification added.

However, the announcement failed to motivate energy investors at PSX, as OGDCL’s share price declined Rs1.68, or 1.20%, and closed at Rs138.07 on Thursday. The benchmark 100-index closed flat at 37,783.54 points.

An analyst said in a post market comment that oil and gas exploration and production firms’ share prices declined in connection with downturn of crude oil’s price at world markets.



Earlier in the week, the firm reported discovery of 17.2 million standard cubic feet per day of gas from its exploratory well, Thal West #01, which is located in the district Sukkur, Sindh.

The firm’s net profit declined 36% to Rs43.49 billion in nine-month period ended March 31, 2016 due to higher exploration expenditure and lower price of the benchmark Arab Light crude oil.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2016.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.