ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The government of Pakistan and Australian petroleum company BHP Billiton-led joint venture signed an agreement for gas sales and purchase of additional 150 million cubic feet gas per day from the Zamzama gas filed in Dadu district of Sindh.

According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, the additional gas would be supplied to Sui Southern and Sui Northern Gas companies. The agreement was signed by Ahmad Waquar, petroleum secretary, and Philip Aikan, president of BHP Billiton.

The joint venture includes Italian Giant ENU group, PKP Ltd, a company jointly owned by KUFPEC of Kuwait and Premier Oil of UK and Government Holdings (PVT) Ltd ((GHPL), a company owned by the government of Pakistan.

Under the Zamzama phase-2 development, an investment of over $120 million by the BHP-led joint venture will be made to enhance the production by 50 per cent to 450 mmcfd by the third quarter of 2007.

The joint venture will construct state-of-the-art nitrogen rejection unit to produce pipeline quality gas under the phase-2 development project.

In another agreement, Australian Tethyan Copper Company Limited was granted a reconnaissance licence by the Balochistan government covering 4,369 sq-km of the Chegai Hills region in northern Balochistan.

The new licence agreement was signed by Muslim Lakhani, chairman of Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan (PVT) Ltd, and Maqbool Ahmed, director general, mines and minerals on behalf of the government of Balochistan. The signing ceremony was also attended by visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

The license covers extensions of Tethyan Magmatic Are, a major copper belt that also hosts the company’s existing project at Reko Diq where over 15 billion pounds of copper and 11 million ounces of gold have delineated in inferred and indicated resources.

Since 2000, Tethyan has been a major foreign investor in Balochistan and has spent over 23 million Australian dollars in the exploration and development of its mineral assets in the region. The company has identified a number of potential porphyry copper-gold targets in the new licence area from satellite image data and regional studies.