ISLAMABAD, April 14: The government on Thursday granted two petroleum exploration licences to Mari Gas Company Limited (MGCL) over Block Nos. 3271-1 (Karak) and 2971-4 (Noor) covering an area of 2335.18 and 2484.13 square kilometres, respectively. The Karak area lies in Bannu, North Waziristan and Mianwali districts of NWFP and Punjab in Zone-1, and Noor area lies in Vehari, Bahawalpur and Lodhran districts of Punjab in Zone-11.

According to a press release, MGCL intended to make an investment of over $10.17 million in the Karak block to carry out geological and geophysical studies, geological fieldwork and petrophysical and geochemical studies in the 1st year, reprocessing of existing 200 lines km 2D seismic and acquisition of 200 line km 2D seismic in the 2nd year and drilling of an exploratory well in the third year.

Whereas in the Noor block, MGCL will invest $0.857 million for conducting data purchase, G&G studies, geochemical micro seep survey, 2D existing data, reprocessing of 400 line km along with acquisition processing and interpretation of 70 line km 2D seismic data in the 2nd year.

MGCL owns and operates the country’s second largest natural gas field, located in district Ghotki, Sindh, supplying gas an average rate of 452m standard cubic feet per day to three fertilizer plants and Wapda’s Guddu thermal plants. Mari Concession Lease has remaining recoverable reserves of 3.923 trillion cubic feet gas in the shallow Habib Rabi Formation and estimated gas reserves of 1.6289 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Lower Goru B sands.

MGCL is operator of Ziarat Exploration Licence and Mari additional and Zarghum South Leases and working interest ownership in 10 exploration joint ventures, namely Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Manchar and Hala in Sindh, Kohlu, Dadhat, Central Makran offshore and Pasni in Balochistan, and Zamurdan and Kalchas in Punjab.

The execution ceremony was witnessed by Amanullah Khan Jadoon, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, and Muhammad Naseer Khan Mengal, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources. The licences and petroleum concession agreements were signed by Ahmad Waqar, Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, on behalf of the President of Pakistan, G.A. Sabri, Director General of Petroleum Concession, and Imtiaz Shaheen, Managing Director of Mari Gas Company Limited.