ISLAMABAD: The government on Monday awarded a licence to Tallah­assee Resources Inc of Canada for exploration of oil and gas resources in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The exploration licence and petroleum concession agreement (PCA) was signed for Karak North Block by Secretary Petroleum Abid Saeed, Director General Petroleum Concessions Saeedullah Shah and the representatives of KP government and Tallahassee Resources.

Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi witnessed the signing ceremony. He said the Karak North block spread over a total area of 99.14 sq km for which the Canadian firm had made a minimum firm work commitment of $3.07 million.

Apart from minimum work commitment, the company was also obligated to spend a minimum of $30,000 every year in the block on social welfare schemes. The minister directed the Director General Petroleum Concessions to facilitate exploration and production companies to expedite the exploration process to boost domestic oil and gas production.

The minister said that after taking all provinces on board, the federal government had been able to finalise a Model Petroleum Concession Agreement (MP­CA) and Model Exploration Licence.

As a result, it had awarded 50 blocks on provisional basis to nine exploration and production companies early this year.

These included 21 blocks in Balochistan, 15 in Punjab, six in Sindh and seven blocks in KP and one in Fata. The ministry has already signed 43 exploration licences and PCAs so far this year.

Tallahassee Resources Inc is a Calgary-Canada based exploration and production company that was established in 2007. It has its core assets with stakes in more than 100 producing wells in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.

The company is primarily focused on conventional and Montney shale gas play in British Columbia, and conventional light oil and Duverney shale play development in Alberta.

The company said it has its international exploration plans in Pakistan with a current focus on light oil development in Kohat and Potwar belts and intends to expand in the near future into Pakistan’s tight gas and shale oil development by utilising its existing technical expertise and resources of North American assets.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2014