Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, has signed a contract with the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) for the hiring of advanced Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Element Profiling and Radioactive Element Profiling services.
The signing ceremony was held in Islamabad and was attended by MD/CEO OGDC Ahmed Hayat Lak, senior management of OGDC, and representatives of PAEC and PINSTECH; the E&P shared it via a social media post on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, PINSTECH will carry out ICP-based elemental profiling of produced water and brine from candidate OGDC wells, quantifying lithium, rare earth elements, precious metals and radioactive elements.
More than 2,000 samples will be collected from candidate wells for the presence of lithium and other rare and critical earth metals, the company said.
The exercise will build a comprehensive geochemical database of OGDC’s produced water, rank wells by lithium and rare earth content, and map areas of high to low concentration, providing the technical basis for evaluating the feasibility of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE).
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OGDCL said that the expanded profiling effort is aimed at turning produced water, long treated as a waste stream from oil and gas operations, into a potential source of critical minerals.
“The agreement comes as OGDC expands its diversification beyond conventional hydrocarbons into minerals and new energy resources, including lithium and rare earths recovered from produced water and geothermal brines,” read the statement.
OGDCL said that the Wahid Bukhsh-01 well, its pilot well, has already identified geothermal brine containing 291 mg/L of lithium, a concentration comparable to leading geothermal-lithium brines internationally.
OGDCL was established by an Ordinance on September 20, 1961, and is recognised for its operations including exploration, drilling, production, reservoir management, and engineering support.
The company is pursuing diversification initiatives, including a 25% equity participation in the Reko Diq copper-gold project, progress on the Abu Dhabi Offshore Block-5, and steps towards shale gas and tight gas development.
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