Circular debt and challenged security situation particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan continued to affect on the sector’s exploration programme while some carry-over wells were also completed, said Topline Securities analyst Nauman Khan in a research note.
During this period, exploration and production companies continued to focus on existing reservoirs, spudding 15 development wells during July to December 2011, a notch above 13 wells drilled in the same period last year.
Pakistan Oilfields (POL) and Oil & Gas Development (OGDC) during the period under review drilled one exploratory well each while Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) has yet to spud for new reserves.
Only 29% of target achieved
The entire sector drilled a total of 22 exploration and discovery wells, accomplishing only 29% of the full year target of 76 wells. In the same period last year, the sector drilled 23% of its target of 80 wells.
Activity continue to be skewed towards development activities, with 15 development wells against full year target of 45, while only seven exploratory wells were drilled versus FY12 target of 31 wells.
The listed sector has remained muted in their own operating lease with major dependency on their JV partners. POL spudded one exploratory well and no development well, while PPL was on the other end of spectrum, with company drilling one development well and no exploratory well. OGDC recently started working on their first exploratory well of the year, while six development wells have been drilled.
Amongst last year carried over wells, majority of them have concluded with not such encouraging results. It yielded only one discovery in the Zin block, with that also falling short of industry’s expectation, says the note.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ