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ISLAMABAD: The government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and the Kirthar Pakistan BV on Friday for exploration of oil and gas in Paharpur block.
The block is located in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with a small part of it falling in Bhakkar district of Punjab.
The exploration licence and petroleum concession agreements were signed by Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, the CEO of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, Secretary of Petroleum and Natural Resources Arshad Mirza and Saeedullah Shah, Director-General Petroleum Concessions.
The ceremony was witnessed by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
The petroleum concession agreements and exploration licence have been executed over block no. 3170-5 (Paharpur) with Kirthar Pakistan BV. The total area of the block is 2,260.79 sq km and minimum firm work commitment is $9.5 million, including drilling of two exploratory wells.
The company is obligated to spend a minimum of $30,000 per year in the block on social welfare schemes.
The government is exploring various options, including award of exploration blocks on strategic partnership basis to seek foreign investment in the exploration and production sector, and during the tenure of this government, 17 leases have been granted, 173 wells have been spud and 47 discoveries made.
The grant of 46 new blocks has increased the area under exploration from 269,152 square kilometres to 363,639 sq km (35pc increase). Moreover, around 32,000 barrels of oil production per day have been added and over 500mmcfd additional gas has also been injected in the gas network system.
Pakistan’s oil production touched the highest level on Dec 7, 2014 at 100,698 barrels per day.
Published in Dawn March 14th , 2015
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