Shale & tight gas: OGDCL, foreign companies to start exploration by end of year

The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) will start exploration of shale and tight gas in joint ventures with foreign companies by the end of current year.

An official of company said that the company has started working on enhanced recovery of reserves of unconventional tight gas and shale gas. Pakistan is also drafting its first shale gas policy and it may be finished in this year, with a licensing round in the first half of 2020.

Sources in Petroleum Division said the government is in process of finalising a policy to exploit massive shale gas reserves identified after a study completed in collaboration with the USAID, covering lower and middle Indus Basin.

The shale gas policy is being prepared for onward submission to the quarters concerned to get final approval in the light of study.

In 2015, a study completed in cooperation with the USAID confirmed presence of 10,159 trillion cubic feet (TCF) shale gas and 2,323 billion of stock tank barrels (BSTB) shale oil in place resources. After identification of the deposits, a task had been given to OGDCL and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) to undertake pilot project(s) in potential areas to assess the cost of extracting shale gas which could not be launched to date.

According to the study, there are 188TCF gas and 58 BSTB oil technically recoverable resources, while the risked technically recoverable resources stand at 95TCF gas and 14 BSTB oil.

Pakistan has about 51 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale gas reserves. Pakistan consumes 100 percent of natural gas that it produces, so shale gas may be an area of future growth in Pakistan.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has estimated shale gas at 586 Tcf against its 2011 estimates of 52 Tcf for Pakistan.

As of 2009, Pakistan stands 19th in the world in terms of total technically recoverable shale gas reserves.