In a written reply to the question of Ms Sehar Kamran, he said the shale gas and oil reserves have been estimated by United States Energy Information Administration (EIA).
He said the country has launched a study for the assessment of shale gas reservoirs with the assistance of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The study would help providing guidelines for preparing Shale Gas Policy. The federal cabinet has already approved a Shale Gas Frame Work for the first Three (03) Pilot projects.
He said Shale Gas is a new concept in the region. The Exploration and Production companies had confined their exploratory efforts to exploit conventional resources. Therefore the required data including Wells Cores/Cuttings of prospective Shale Gas formations is very limited.
Where ever the data is available the same has not yet been completely evaluated, tested and studied for such unconventional resources potential. This is now being evaluated, he said.
It may be noted that Shale Gas is extracted directly from a sedimentary source rock and since it has low permeability as compared to conventional reservoirs, it did not come out easily and hence specific investments and pricing were required for its exploitation.