KARACHI: Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (POL) told its shareholders on Thursday that MOL Pakistan, which operates the Tal Block in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has encountered hydrocarbons following Drill Stem Tests (DSTs) conducted in the Tolanj West-2 well to measure the potential of Samanasuk, Shinawari and Lockhart formations.

In a regulatory filing, the oil and gas explorer that’s part of the consortium extracting energy from Tal Block said the testing results conveyed a potential of 2.25 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) in the Samanasuk and Shinawari formations and a potential of 8.3mmscfd in the Lockhart formation.

The companies said these formations weren’t hydrocarbon-bearing in the previous well drilled in the Tolanj West field. “Production from the well is expected to start from December 2022,” it said.

A DST is a procedure for isolating and testing the surrounding geological formations through the drill system. The test is a measurement of pressure behaviour at the drill stem and is a way to obtain important fluid sampling information and establish the probability of commercial production.

“It should be borne in mind that actual production may differ significantly from the test results,” the company said.

Meanwhile, the country’s oil reserves in June went down seven per cent year-on-year to 233m barrels. Arif Habib Ltd analyst Muhammad Iqbal Jawaid wrote in a research note on Thursday that the decline in oil reserves came on the back of the reduction in major fields.

Similarly, the country’s gas reserves in June also plunged 7pc on an annual basis to 19,513 billion cubic feet.

Mr Jawaid said oil reserves of Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) plunged 9pc and 27pc, respectively, on a year-on-year basis. However, oil reserves of Mari Petroleum Company Ltd showed a surge of 7.6 times on an annual basis.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2022