ISLAMABAD, May 29: The government on Wednesday awarded the lease of Zamzama Gasfield for its development and production to a joint venture of BHP of Australia (38.5%), Lasmo, a subsidiary of ENI Group of Italy (17.5%), Premier-KUFPEC Pakistan, a joint venture company of Premier Oil of UK and KUFPEC of Kuwait (18.75%) and Government Holding (pvt) Ltd (25%) for a period of 20 years.

The lease was signed by Petroleum Secretary M. Abdullah Yusuf, Director General Petroleum Concessions G.A. Sabri, Managing Director of Lasmo Mike Buck, General Manager of BHP Francis Egan, Chief Executive Officer of PKP Patrick Bird, and CEO of GHPL Mansoor Zubair. The lease covers an area of 536 sq kms in Dadu district and the BHP is the operator of the field.

According to a press release the joint venture would undertake a phased development of Zamzama Gasfield to supply 350 mmcfd gas to SSGCL by October 2003 which would entail an investment of over $100 million.

The gasfield is presently producing 70 mmcfd through extended well test. Under Phase-1 development, three additional wells would be drilled and two additional gas processing trains with capacity of 140 mmcfd each would be constructed and integrated with the existing extended well test facility to provide a throughput capacity of 350 mmcfd.

The development of this field would not only help reduce dependence on imported oil, resulting in reduction of oil import bill and abridging the gap between supply and demand of gas, but would also bring benefits to local population.