ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Mari Gas Company Limited (MGCL) has made a gas discovery near Daharki in Ghotki district of Sindh.

The well flowed sweet natural gas from two horizons — Sui Upper and Sui Main Limestone -- at a cumulative rate of 11.32 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) at 1/2 inch choke size has heating value of 868 BTU/SCF, says a press release issued here on Tuesday.

Drilling operations at Bhitai well No 1 -- the lease area of MGCL -- commenced on Sept 6 and penetrated into Sui Main Limestone formation at 1,202 metres.

The well after conducting testing on various zones has successfully been completed as a gas producer. These additional volumes will be tapped into production stream after in-house installation of production facilities and analysing the testing results for reserve estimation.

Meanwhile, the company has embarked upon drilling of two more exploratory wells at two different structure highs for establishing the total producing capacity of the field.

Mari Gas Company since 2001 has acquired operator ship in seven exploration blocks representing itself in almost all the regions of Pakistan. It has working interest in six blocks as joint venture with other exploration and production companies.

The company enhanced its production capacity from 42mmcfd in 1968 to over 500mmcfd in 2006.