ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has succeeded in discovering considerable oil & gas from its exploratory Norai Jagir well No 1 in Sindh.

According to an announcement made here on Monday, the company has struck fifth consecutive discovery in a row in the Southern Indus Basin and sixth major discovery over last one year, each from distinctly different reservoir horizons.

Norai Jagir structure was delineated in Nim Exploration license area, drilled and tested by OGDCL’s inhouse expertise. Significant reserves of hydrocarbons have been found at Norai Jagir which is located at a distance of 26km south-east of Hyderabad.

Nim Exploration license is a joint venture of OGDCL and Government Holding Private Limited with working interests of 95 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, under the operator ship of OGDCL.

During the initial testing, the well has flowed 410 bp (barrels) of condensate per day and about 10 MMCFD of gas through 32”/64” choke. The Well Head Pressure was recorded as 2100 PSI.

This discovery will help in import substitution of the country to the tune of US $14 million per annum. All the six discoveries will produce about 8,500 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of gas per day, which will contribute US $130 million per annum towards import substitution.

The company’s present production level is 24,500 barrels of oil, 800 million cubic feet of gas, 210 metric tons of LPG and 60 metric tons of sulphur per day. In addition, OGDCL at present carries 7,000 barrels of oil, 160 million cubic feet of gas and 75 metric ton LPG per day from its 24 non-operated joint ventures.

The cumulative foreign exchange savings from the current production works out to US$ 1.52 billion/annum. Through its ongoing projects, OGDCL is looking forward to a yield of additional 6,500 barrels of oil, 180 million cubic feet of gas and around 150 metric ton of LPG per day by the end of June 2003.

Usman Aminuddin, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, has lauded the OGDCL efforts which have given a quantum jump to exploration and drilling programme of the company.