Signing ceremony on execution of PCAs and ELs held

A signing ceremony on the execution of Petroleum Concession Agreements (PCAs) and Exploration Licenses (ELs) was held here on Monday.

The PCAs and ELs were signed by Secretary Petroleum Mian Asad Hayauddin and DG (Petroleum Concession) Imran Ahmed who were signatories on behalf of the government of Pakistan, and Dr Naseem Ahmed, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Moin Raza, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Petroleum Limited, and Lt Gen Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed (retired), Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Mari Petroleum Company Limited.

The PCAs and ELs are located at Block No. 3269-1 (Wali West), MPCL; Block No. 3072-8 and Block No. 2972-6 (Shakar Ganj West-Cholistan), OGDCL, and Block No. 3072-5 (Punjab) PPL. The minimum firm work commitment for these blocks has been worked out at US $ 44.1 million for a three year period. The companies are obligated to spend a minimum of US $30,000/year in each block on socio-economic welfare activities. The annual contribution towards such schemes for these four blocks would, thus, stand at US $120,000.

Wali West block covers an area of 1609.63sqkms and is spread over North Waziristan (64.71%) South Waziristan (27.73%), FR Tank (1.23%), FR Lakki Marwat (6.18%), and Bannu (0.16%). The Cholistan Block covers an area of 2478.26sqkms and is spread between the districts of Bahawalpur (19.22%) and Bahawalnagar (80.78%). The Shakarganj West Block covers an area of 2479.37 sq kms among the districts of Pakpattan (27.46%), Bahawalnagar (0.25%), Vehari (51.66%) and Sahiwal (20.63%). The Punjab Block, 2410.81sqkms is primarily located in Pakpattan (42.78%), Sahiwal (41.58%), Okara (15.07%) and Bahawalnagar (0.57%) districts.

Federal Minister Omar Ayub Khan welcomed the execution of the petroleum concession agreements and exploration licenses and termed them an important step towards incremental investments in Pakistan's energy sector that would lead to expanding the area of operations in far-flung areas of the country; contribute to the socio-economic uplift of these areas and hopefully increase sources of indigenous energy production in the country.

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