Скачать или смотреть Explorers search Pakistani wildcat areas as fields dry

#oilwire - Pakistan’s state-owned companies are spending record amounts on energy exploration, including in areas more known for separatist insurgency, as old fields start to dry up.

The need for greater energy security and to end chronic shortages is key to the re-election prospects of Nawaz Sharif’s ruling party ahead of the national poll next year. Sharif stepped down as prime minister after the Supreme Court last month ordered his disqualification from office with a caretaker leader set up until his brother, Shehbaz, takes the helm.

As South Asia’s second-largest economy imports most of its fuel and its oil refining sector depends mainly on overseas crude supplies, any drop in local crude output will further stress a current account deficit that has doubled to $12 billion in the year ended June. Pakistan spent $11 billion, or a fifth of the total import bill in the past fiscal year, on petroleum products.

Despite a reduction of power shortages since Sharif came to power in 2013, Pakistan continues to deal with daily blackouts. The government is trying to bolster its generation capacity, with China financing the construction of power plants fueled by coal or imported liquefied natural gas.

Bokhari plans to enter “wildcat areas” in Balochistan now that the province has become more accessible after the military pushed back against a long-running militant and separatist insurgency. The impetus came after China announced two years ago its intention to build a trading route through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, using Balochistan’s port in Gwadar as part of its vast ‘One Belt, One Road’ project. Pakistan Petroleum plans to drill 12 new wells in the region by end of the next fiscal year.

So far Pakistan Petroleum has managed to stem a three-year decline in gas production. Drilling costs have fallen to $2,600 per square foot from $3,600, which is helping boost activity, according to Bokhari.