Pakistan’s Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd. (OGDCL) has started gas production from a discovery well in southern Sindh province, the company said on Tuesday, as the state-run producer seeks to raise output and help reduce the country’s reliance on imported fuel.
Pakistan faces declining gas production from several mature fields and has increasingly relied on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet domestic demand. The government has sought to boost indigenous oil and gas production to improve energy security, lower import costs and ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
“Sahito-1 is currently producing 6.0 MMSCFD of gas,” OGDCL said in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, referring to the discovery well located in the Khewari Exploration License area of Sindh’s Khairpur district. The company said production was expected to be progressively ramped up following the planned expansion of surface facilities.
To bring the discovery into production, OGDCL laid a six-inch, five-kilometer flowline connecting the well to the Suleman Gathering Facility for onward processing at the Sinjhoro plant. The processed gas is being injected into the network of Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd. (SSGC), Pakistan’s main gas distributor in the country’s south. “The commencement of production from Sahito-1 reflects OGDCL’s continued efforts toward efficient development and monetization of indigenous hydrocarbon resources,” the company said.
OGDCL announced the Sahito-1 gas discovery in March. The latest production start comes as OGDCL pursues plans to increase output amid concerns over energy security and import dependence.
In April, the company said it aimed to raise natural gas production by 5 percent to 865 million cubic feet per day and boost crude oil production by 14 percent to 40,000 barrels per day, citing the potential to further increase supplies through new discoveries.
Pakistan has reported several oil and gas finds in recent months as authorities seek to narrow the country’s energy supply gap through domestic resources. In January, OGDCL announced an oil and gas discovery in Kohat district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where testing showed flows of 4,100 barrels of oil per day and 10.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
Other producers, including Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Mari Energies, have also reported discoveries over the past year. Successive governments have viewed higher domestic hydrocarbon production as a key component of efforts to reduce Pakistan’s energy import bill and strengthen energy security.