NOC issued to Petronas for winding up operations

Ministry of Petroleum (MoP) has issued No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to Malaysian oil and gas Exploration Company Petronas to wind up operations in Pakistan, Business Recorder has learnt. "Petronas is now seeking permission to continue operations of its representative office in Pakistan," sources maintained.
In a statement released in September 2010, the Austrian oil and gas giant OMV had announced a take over of Petronas''s rights to explore and produce gas in Pakistan that would increase OMV''s gas production in Pakistan to around 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) a day by 2014.
After the deal between Petronas and OMC was agreed last year, the former had sought NOC from Pakistan for its exit. British Petroleum (BP) has already sold its assets in Pakistan due to its massive losses sustained after the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico for which the US government had demanded massive compensation. Canadian oil and gas company Niko Resources is also said to be considering winding up its exploration operations on offshore wells in Pakistan due to its concerns over the wellhead price, however the government has requested Niko Resources to stay.
The exit of two major oil and gas companies - BP and Petronas - has put the considerable pressure on the government desperately seeking to attract foreign companies engaged in oil and gas exploration activities that it hopes would lead to enhanced local and production that would be able to meet rising domestic demand.
In order to stop the Malaysian company from exiting, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani had also written a letter to his Malaysian counterpart seeking his intervention to stop the Muslim world''s only petroleum company leaving Pakistan.
OMV is Austria''s largest listed integrated oil and gas industrial company, which has been involved in exploration activities in Pakistan since 1990. OMV had made a gas discovery at the Miano gas field Sukkur followed by another significantly larger find at Sawan, Khairpur district. These two gas fields contribute significantly to Pakistan''s gas requirements.