PPL discovers gas deposits at Bashar X-I ST

During testing gas flowed at rate of 8.7 million scfd

KARACHI: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has discovered new gas deposits from Lower Goru Formation in district Matiari, Sindh, according to a bourse filing Friday.

The company has discovered hydrocarbon from its exploratory well Bashar X-I ST. “During testing, gas flowed at a rate of 8.7 million standard cubic feet per day...,” PPL Company Secretary Shahana Ahmed Ali said in a notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange.



PPL is the operator of Hala Exploration License with 65% working interest. Mari Petroleum Company Limited is the joint venture partner and holds remaining 35% working interest. The dissemination of the discovery information, however, failed to motivate investors to buy the company’s shares. The share price dropped Rs0.84 or 0.52%, and closed at Rs159.03 with a volume of 295,400 shares.

The decline in share price may be attributed to widespread selling pressure at the exchange, particularly in the oil and gas exploration and production companies.

Earlier, the state-owned exploration and production company found “tight gas” reserves in District Sanghar, Sindh in July 2016. The reserves were discovered from its exploration well Hadi X-1A. They were flowing at a rate of 0.85 million standard cubic feet per day.



Likewise, it announced in August 2016 to have started production from the second gas processing facility located in Sindh, which will produce significant amount of crude oil, pipelined gas and liquefied petroleum gas.

The net profit of the company, however, fell 48% to Rs15.85 billion in the nine-month ended March 31 from Rs30.45 billion in the same period last year. The decline was recorded due to slowdown in sales and decrease in other income.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2016.

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