Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) on Monday announced discovery of 42 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas in the Gambat South block, its third and biggest discovery so far in the particular area.
The company said the exploration well Sharf X-1 was spud on April 18, 2014, and the final depth of 3,730 meters was reached on July 6, 2014. Along with the gas, condensate with flow of 199 barrels per day has also been discovered, reinforcing the commercial viability of the well, the company said.
More significantly, PPL said the expected production from the well could go up to 60 mmscfd. “Two additional zones have been identified that will be tested later, resulting in an expected cumulative production of 60 mmscfd, which translates into approximately 7,400 barrels per day in oil equivalent and foreign exchange saving of $0.75 million per day.”
PPL announced two discoveries in the Gambat South block, which is located in Sanghar District of Sindh, last year within a span of two months. Previous wells Wafiq X-1 and Shahdad X-1 had initially yielded 7.4 mmscfd and 27.8 mmscfd of gas, respectively.
“The well is being flowed at different choke sizes to measure the gas flow rates, and the actual flow potential of the well will be determined after completion of the test,” the company said about its latest find.
Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL) and Asia Resources Oil Limited (AROL) with 25% and 10% working interest are joint venture partners of PPL in the block.
PPL, which has a portfolio of 47 exploration blocks, has been aggressively searching for new hydrocarbon finds since last year to compensate for decrease in production from its established fields like Sui.
Much of the credit for PPL’s decision to intensify search for new reserves goes to former Managing Director Asim Murtaza Khan and his team. Khan retired recently.
State-run PPL had earmarked Rs10 billion to be spent on exploration activities during last fiscal year with most of the focus on Gambat South.
PPL accounts for 22% of the country’s gas production. In the nine months of July-March 2013-14, PPL posted a profit of Rs38 billion, up 13.4% over the same period in the previous year.
The company has been trying to slow down the depletion rate of its fields by installing compressor plants and drilling more wells.
PPL’s six producing fields include Sui, Kandhkot, Adhi, Mazrani, Chachar and Hala, while it has working interest in eight partner-operated fields.
PPL also has working interest in offshore fields in Iraq and Yemen. But doubts have been raised about its concession in Iraq since militants took over swaths of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 5th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (23)
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@Khan: Agreed. Used to work in PPL. Regret to say, they don't let employees from other provinces or even interior Sindh flourish. Preference is only given to locals from Karachi - known fact. Have a look at their Senior Management Team - you will realize what i am talking about! 90% from Karachi. The HR/Admin is full of it.
PPL cumulative market share of gas production has been dwindling since 2009. It accounted for over 25% of gas production in 2007/2008. As of June 2014 it's national gas share is under 20% @ 820 mmcf/d compared with 897 mmcf/d during same period last year and 930 mmcf/d in 2012. Doest matter how many well are dug. What matters is the quality of wells being dug and proximity of the target subsurface petroleum system where oil and gas is extracted from !!!!!!
Sorry to say but over the past couple of years there's been too much talk talk talk at PPL but no actual physical work.
Congrats ODGCL management on record Rs.124 billion earning. PPL should learn some business lessons from you’ll and focus more on capacity enhancement measures, in order to add more domestic hydrocarbon reserves to the depleting national oil and gas stock pile. They must pay less heed to internal (company) politics and quit showcasing a Retired / Incompetent MD for PPL’s recent gas discovery. He had nothing to do with the said discovery, infact he opposed the entire plan initially. Cunningly, what he did was invited Ministry officials to the inaugural gas flare at Gambat South in August 2013 with an intention that Ministry Officials would be impressed by his performance, and ultimately bless him / close aides , with an extension in employment contract. He even posted photo clips – him and Ministry Officials on PPL’s website, giving a false impression to the general public. Such practices are against corporate ethics. No national Oil and Gas Company follows such deceitful ways to accomplish desires. It is worth mentioning, its been over 3 years since PPL acquired Block 8 in Iraq at a staggering cost of $100 million. And sadly to date, no tangible benefit has accrued. Instead, the company is paying mass amounts just to keep other JV partners intact, so that this entire short-sighted, poorly planned and publicly funded venture is not abandoned – in view of the deteriorating security and political situation in Iraq. Moreover Yemen where PPL has invested considerable sums of nation's hard earned foreign exchange, has yielded no returns what so ever. Knowingly, that geo-political situation in Yemen was so dangerous, US and other Western embassies had to shut-down diplomatic activities on numerous occasions, between 2011-2014. In spite of this the incompetent Management lead by former MD, deliberately (merely to attain title of first-to-enter international market) pursued the lackluster Yemen upstream market. Sources inside PPL reveal, close to $50 million have so far been spent there. Sadly the Blocks (2) primary operator - French IoC, has abandoned all exploration and development activities and are actively pursuing assets sale - intending to exit Yemen permanently. With the above highlights/facts in mind, who in the world would knowingly assign credit to his name. Maybe his accomplices, who are still out there protecting his back.
@Syed Rizwan Abbas: The author is correct when he commends the former CEO you are right at mentioning that OGDC is the largest upstream oil and gas company in pakistan but you should see the growth of ppl in the last few years,Every year all public companies are given a certain number of well targets to drill.See the target for OGDC which according to its size was 50 for this last year and it only dug 27 and well short of its target in the whole of last decade except 2013 when it reached its target.PPL is much closer to its target in all these years which shows its aggressive stance towards replacing its depleting stock of reserves PPL has even tested a couple of shale wells and our shale potential is more than conventional so its a decent forward thinking approach
I personally think OGDC with its size and economic strength is growing fast but it can do much more for the country and a great example would be the fact that it holds licenses to offshore wells like indus concession in sindh.across arabian sea india has some of its largest offshore wells and the soil formation is the same on our side.PPL OGDC and ENI pakistan hold licenses for Indus a,c,d,e blocks which can be exploited for our energy security.its an initiative they should work on jointly
There needs to be a major reshuffle in PPL's Senior Management - Golden Hand Shake appears to be a viable option, for staff nearing 57-60. As far as the appointment of new MD is concerned, he/she should this time around be hired externally, with preference given to eligible candidate from either Baluchistan or Sindh province. Never in history of PPL has a Baloch headed this Baloch-resource driven company :((
Asim Murtaza's tenure of 3 years expired and Govt. refused to give him any extension. It's time to move on and replace the existing acting MD with an eligible one
@Nadeem A Mehar: @Syed Rizwan Abbas: Anyone who has closely seen how other state-run exploration company - OGDCL - is being run, will concur with the observations in the report. It is not foul play but statement of fact when the aggressive stance of the company is attributed to Asim and his team. The bureaucrat apologists dont realize what will happen with PPL now. As far management is concerned, it has remained with the company officials for many years. And NO decisions about the when to start work, where to start work, how to do that and how much money to allocate rests with PPL one way or another. Yes, directives do come from Ministry of Petroleum but the professionals have had the last word on more important things. The appointment of an Additional Secretary as the MD will make this company more subservient to government's demand of paying out more dividends, against the wishes of the company which wants to save money for future exploration efforts.
@Captain Mirani: This well is in the Gambat South Block which is comes in the Sanghar District.
It appears, ex-MD PPL has many Courtier left behind in PPL to glorify his demise! Totally agree with Syed Rizwan Abbas's comment, especially the conclusion.
He now needs to rest, live in peace and do some good deeds and acts for the hereafter.
@syed: We appreciate your concern but the deprivation has got nothing to do with the wadera system. The waderas don't control the gas distribution system.
well done, good work done by PPL team specail Mr Asim, Government should rehired Mr Asim,
PPL, by its very own charter, is a state-owned upstream oil & gas enterprise. In this respect, all exploration, development and production initiatives, be in Pakistan or abroad, are an amalgam of strategic objectives and medium terms plans of GoP, in particular Petroleum Ministry, to bring into production technically recoverable, as well as economically viable fossil fuel prospects of Pakistan into productive use.
Such efforts are designed to alleviate the widening energy demand-supply gap through indigenous hydrocarbon reserves in short-term and devise/implement long-term plans towards exploration& development of domestic unconventional energy sources, which are realistically believed to be present in significant volumes, in both onshore and offshore geological environments of the country.
Now, assigning new hydrocarbons'-discovery-portfolio credit to one person (ex-MD PPL) seems foul-play and very ignorant on part of the publisher or whoever is behind, since most of the new oil & gas finds/leads i.e. Gambat South were planned for Seismic tests (2 / 3 Dimensional Image Capturing) and subsequent block/field(s) development i.e. exploratory stage well testing back in 2010/11 or even earlier.
To conclude, it is wisely suggested that when it comes to accrediting state-owned companies for their operational endeavors, the author(s) shall refrain from signifying /glorifying particular individual(s) and instead refer to combined efforts of the concerned company in general. In this regard, we've never read or heard anything positively about MD PSO, MD OGDCL, MD SSGPL/SNGPL in local media. After all ODGCL is by far the largest explorer / developer and producer of natural gas and crude oil in Pakistan. Its, reserves portfolio has been growing more than any other E&P company. Not to mention, PSO / SNGPL / SSGPL, the dominant mid / downstream National Oil Companies, fueling the economy of Pakistan on a daily basis.
Despite outstanding performance by ex MD Asim Murtaza Khan, why he was stepped down from a position of MD. He has spent all his professional life with PPL and bringing someone from outside and promoting him to a position of MD is totally nonsense. PML-N is really ruining all institutions and govt owned entities.
Very good information provided by ET,we hope and wish Pakistan is going in right direction...
To SindhiAwam, Do not forget the gas you were using from Balochistan for the past 60 years. Its sad how you think ...
Congratulations to all. I second the views on deprivation of Sindhis. But this is due to the Wadera system we have in the province.
BTW, ET, the image selection is totally wrong, it is displaying issues, rather then happiness.
Good News, But Gambat is situated in Khairpur :) , despite huge ammount of gas we are short of CNGs and Methane at houses
In the name of federation, Sindh's natural gas resources will be exploited by central Govt, and dividends wont reach to local people of Sindh. Sindh will face more loadshedding, and gas shortage despite being the larges producer of Gas and Electricity in Pakistan.
Good news about the discovery but sadly it will be the people of Sindh who will be deprived of their gas.
When there is a will, there is a way. Congratulations to former Managing Director Asim Murtaza Khan and his team for their efforts.
Mashallah. May Allah bless you in your positive efforts.
Well done PPL. Instead of Iraq and Yemen why not search oil offshore Pakistan which was once declared huge oil/gas potential on the Pakistan coast line. If shy take help from Qatar, Kuwait and Iran
The current managing director of the company has been prematurely sent home and plan is to bring back the previous Managing director Khalid Rahman who was asked to leave by the board two years ago.