ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: With the energy deficit rising each year, more than four decades’ old fleet of drilling rigs of the country’s largest exploration company — OGDCL — is not in a position to increase oil and gas production.
Sources in the ministry of petroleum and natural resources told Dawn that almost the entire fleet of eight rigs has completed its normal life and should have been replaced at least 15-20 years ago. The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, despite earning around Rs50 billion a year, has not been able to purchase new rigs in decades.
As a result, most of the rigs face frequent breakdown and technical faults, resulting in delays in the development of oil and gas fields while paying about $30,000 per day to local and foreign rig companies on account of rent. This was also resulting in outsourcing of employment opportunities to foreigners at the cost of local people, a senior official said.
The sources said the oil production from the OGDCL fields was to have reached 45,000 barrels per day two years ago and then should have seen a progressive growth. But the current average production remains at about 39,000 barrels a day and the company has stopped setting production targets because of project delays.
In a recent letter to the federal government and the OGDCL, another state-run exploration and production company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, which is a joint venture partners in one of the most prospective oil fields, has protested over what it terms inordinate delays in Mela and Nashpa fields.
Officials said the OGDCL was a leading profit-earning company, mainly because of rising international oil prices, which could turn into negative in a few years if fresh rig inductions were not made and drill wells were not completed in time.
They said that a number of inquiries to identify reasons for delays and fix responsibility had been shelved.
Giving a breakdown, the official said that five of the existing OGDCL rigs were purchased in 1977-78 and another was taken over from former operators of the Mari Gas Company in the mid-1960s. The last addition to the OGDCL was a Russian rig purchased in 1987.
The sources said that in some cases, the company had taken up to 800 days on drilling for a depth with a specified period of 330 days. Foreign contractors, on the other hand, are unable to continue drilling and exploration work at times on perceived threats and sometimes because of the law and order situation.
One foreign contractor has completed only 2770 metres of drilling in more than 215 days against a target of reaching 3100 metres depth in 200 days. At another field, the contractor has drilled about 4700 metres down in more than 300 days against a target of 4850 metres in 190 days.
Yet another contractor has drilled 3700 metres in 170 days against the target of reaching 4100 metres depth in 200 days. The OGDCL is required to pay out about $30,000 a day to the contractors.
When contacted, an official close to the OGDCL management said a case for purchase of three new rigs had been pending for approval for more than six months but some influential officials in the company were delaying the process on one reason or the other because they were directly benefiting from renting out drilling work to foreigners.