Massive gas reserves discovered in Kalat, Balochistan

In a major development to ensure the energy security of the country, a massive discovery of over one trillion cubic feet of gas was made in Kalat, Balochistan.

The development was announced by Senior Minister of Punjab and Minister of Food, Abdul Aleem Khan in a tweet post on Wednesday. “Discovery of 1 trillion+ cubic feet of gas in Kalat, Balochistan, brings good news in controlling Pakistan's energy crisis for the residential and commercial sector,” said the minister.

The minister added that the latest discovery will also help revitalize the economy as foreign exchange reserves are disturbed by hefty LNG imports which as per the minister amount to $15-16 billion.

As per details available, the discovery was made by the state-owned multinational petroleum company Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) back in December 2019.

PPL recently achieved a historic milestone with the discovery of significant gas reserves from Morgandh X-1 in Margand Block, Balochistan on the Kalat plateau. Notably, this was the westernmost discovery in Pakistan, opening up a new sub-basin for future exploration. Further deepening up of Morgandh X-1 resulted in a longer gas bearing column of about one kilometre, indicating larger reserves potential than estimated earlier which will be firmed up based on appraisal wells. The discovered column of gas along with map indicates a volume close to one trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.

Back in December, PPL made first gas discovery on Balochistan's Kalat Plateau from exploratory well Margand X-1. The discovery opened a new sub-basin for further hydrocarbon exploration.

Meanwhile, the latest will not only add to Pakistan’s hydrocarbon reserves it will contribute in reducing the gap between supply and demand of oil and gas in the country through the exploitation of indigenous resources.

With a portfolio of 48 exploration blocks and 59 fields and discoveries, PPL made a record number of 11 discoveries in one year during 2018-19 with a further two in 2019-20, achieving a reserves replacement ratio of 110percent.