ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: The government will achieve the target of drilling 100 new oil and gas exploration wells in the year 2008-09 ending on June next, said Adviser to Prime Minister on Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain at a press conference here on Friday.

He said that the government had already envisaged a plan to provide security at the oil and gas exploration sites to attract foreign investment.

Pakistan has drilled 725 exploratory wells till to-date. Of these, only 66 existed before the partition of the sub-continent. All these drills produced 219 wells, 54 of oil and 165 of condensate oil and gas.

“The country has so far 960 appraisal wells. This indicates how much potential of oil and gas exists here,” the adviser said adding his ministry has so far awarded 119 exploration licences to public and private sector firms.

Dr Hussain claimed that the success rate in oil and gas exploration was ‘very high’ in Pakistan as compared to other discoveries at international level. This figure shows that after almost every three to four drillings there was a result, while on international level discovery comes after eight to 10 attempts,” he added.

He said that in Balochistan alone drilling activities had now resumed at 16 places, which had been closed owing to security reasons. At the remaining nine places the activities will be resumed shortly.

Currently, the gas production was 4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) and the oil production was 37,000 barrels per day (bpd) against the demand of 9-10 bcfd of gas and 77,000 bpd of oil. The country has about 45 rigs from where oil and gas is being produced and supplied to meet day-to-day demand of the country, he said.

Answering a question the adviser said the new petroleum policy has almost been finalised, which would be announced soon. A social work programme is being considered under the new policy, he added.

Dr Hussain said that government had decided to trickle down production bonus to respective provinces directly for onward disbursement to districts under the new policy. Currently, it is not allowed to those areas from where discoveries were made.To make the country self-sufficient in oil and gas sector the network of OGDCL and PPL was being expanded to other countries like Yemen, Iraq, Nigeria and Sudan. “We have taken a concession in Yemen from the oil company named OMB and further negotiations are underway,” he added.

Commenting on present status of Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, he said all modalities with regard to the project except the gas pricing formula had been finalised.

Iran is demanding very high price for its gas, which is not affordable for the domestic consumers of Pakistan, he said adding that it is very expensive. He was of the view that all modalities of the project would be put before the parliament for its approval before finalising the deal with Iran.

Mr Hussain said the government had asked exploration companies to create a special security fund to involve locals in Balochistan. He said the government had planned to expedite oil and gas exploration to reduce reliance on imports.

Answering a question, the adviser said petroleum prices were expected to remain unchanged for a month as prices in international market were moving upward. The freezing of oil prices for the past one and a half months help the government raised billions of rupees to bridge budget deficit.