A major discovery of oil and natural gas reserves has been made in Pakistan’s territorial waters which is set to make the country with the biggest oil and gas reserves in all of Asia.
The hydrocarbon find is said to be so large that it could potentially alter the nation’s economic trajectory.
A three-year survey, conducted in partnership with an allied nation, has confirmed the presence of these resources.
The geographic survey has pinpointed the location of the deposits and the relevant Pakistani departments have briefed the government on the findings.
The senior official described this as an opportunity to capitalise on the “blue water economy”, indicating that proposals for bidding and exploration are under consideration, which could lead to the commencement of exploration activities soon.
Despite the promising discovery, the official noted that the process of drilling wells and extracting oil could span several years.
Some estimates suggest that this discovery constitutes the fourth largest oil and gas reserves in the world and the biggest in Asia.
Currently, Venezuela is thought to be the leader in oil reserves with around 3.4 billion barrels, while the US has the most untapped shale oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Canada and Iraq constitute the rest of the top five.
Former Ogra member Muhammad Arif said even though the country should remain optimistic, there’s never 100 percent certainty that the reserves would be discovered as expected.
When asked if these reserves are enough to meet the country’s energy needs, he said it depends on the size and recovery rate of the production. “If this is a gas reserve, it can replace LNG imports and if these are oil reserves, we can substitute imported oil.”
However, he cautioned that it is a “wishful thinking” until the prospects for the reserves are analysed and the drilling process begins
He pointed out that exploration alone required hefty investment of around $5 billion and it might take four to five years to extract reserves from an offshore location.
He said if the exploration resulted in the discovery of reserves, then further investment would be needed for wells and laying down the infrastructure to extract the reserves and produce fuel.