 GLENDORA, UNITED STATES - 00:00 AM
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GLENDORA, UNITED STATES - 00:00 AM
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why so?
Continuation of aliveness the tradition us, Pakistan Association of Petroleum Geoscientists (PAPG) is organizing server event including technical workshops, field trips, social gatherings and mega event "Annual Technical Conference & Oil Show", now you can be a part of these events 20 corporate members and different s universities student chapters in Pakistan.PAPG will Continue to make your membership more and more useful by organizing similiar events in the future too.. |
 HISTORY OF PETROLEUM EXPLORATION IN PAKISTAN ONSHORE The search for oil in South Asian Subcontinent dates back to the early days of oil exploration in other parts of the world. The initial exploration activity was carried out in the vicinity of hydrocarbon seepages; the first exploratory well was drilled by the Punjab Government near an oil seepage at Kundal (Khisor Range, KPK) in 1866, just seven years after the world's pioneer well in Pennsylvania (USA) drilled by Col. Drake. Similarly, during 1885-1892, thirteen wells were drilled near Khattan oil seepage (southeast of Quetta) in Balochistan which produced about 25,000 barrels of heavy oil. Exploration was undertaken at that time by the Government but lack of significant success halted further effort. In 1912, a syndicate was formed which later became Attock Oil Company (AOC) of UK and undertook extensive geological surveys in the Potwar area of northern Pakistan. This resulted in the first commercial oil discovery at Khaur (North Potwar, Punjab) in 1915 in Miocene and Eocene reservoirs. A total of 396 wells were drilled in the field from 1915 to 1954. This field had produced about 4 million barrels of oil up to 1990 and is still on production. At the same time Burmah Oil Company (BOC) of UK, which was active in the eastern part of the subcontinent, carried out extensive geological investigations including gravity surveys in different parts of the region which later became part of Pakistan. BOC drilled an exploratory well Chandragup-1 (Makran Coast), in Balochistan in 1916, to a total depth of 810 meters near an active mud volcano but without success. As a result of combined efforts of BOC and AOC, Dhulian (1936), Joya Mair (1944) and Balkassar (1946) oil fields were discovered in the Potwar area establishing the potential of the highly fractured Eocene limestone. After the inception of Pakistan in 1947, the Government issued the Pakistan Petroleum (Production) Rules (1949) under which several fiscal and other incentives were granted to oil companies to encourage and accelerate petroleum exploration activities. Thereafter BOC and AOC established Pakistani Companies, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) respectively and transferred exploration activities to these Companies. In 1952, a well drilled by Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) on the Sui structure (located in Balochistan Province), the first low hill in the Sulaiman Lobe off the Indus plains, made the maiden discovery of large reserves of natural gas in the Sui Main Limestone of Early Eocene age. The original recoverable gas reserves were estimated to be 12.625 trillion cubic feet (TCF) equivalent to about 2 billion barrels of oil. The discovery of Sui Gas Field in almost the geographical centre of country was the first milestone in the search for hydrocarbons as well as the development of gas infrastructure in Pakistan, the first of its kind in the South Asian and Middle East regions. The first gas was delivered to Karachi in 1955 via Sui Southern network. Following the natural gas discovery at Sui, several foreign oil companies took active interest in carrying out exploration in Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan entered into 'Profit Sharing' Petroleum Concession Agreements with Standard-Vacuum Oil Company (1954), Hunt International Oil Company (1955), Shell Oil Company (1956), Sun Oil Company (1957) and Tidewater (1958), all of USA. This led to further exploratory drilling in prospective areas. Further discoveries of natural gas were made during 1954-59 at Zin, Uch, Mazarani (PPL) in Balochistan and Khairpur (PPL), Mari (Stanvac), Kandhkot (PPL) in Sindh, all in Eocene limestone reservoirs. During the same period Karsal Oil Field (1956) in Potwar area was discovered by PPL/POL. During 1956-59, thirty five exploratory wells were drilled and this could be described as a period of extensive exploration in Pakistan. However, because of lack of oil discoveries and since the natural gas discoveries with commercial production potential could not be developed for exploitation (the natural gas industry was then in its nascent stage and there was limited gas market), exploration activities sharply declined in early 1960s. Government of Pakistan then decided to participate directly in the search for oil and gas and established the state oil exploration company, Oil & Gas development company Ltd. (OGDCL) in September, 1961 with the assistance of USSR. OGDCL's first success was the small gas discovery at Sari Singh (Sindh, 1965), which was followed by discovery of oil at Toot (Potwar, Punjab, 1968), gas at Hundi (Sindh, 1970), Rodho (Punjab, 1972), Kothar (Sindh, 1973) and Pirkoh (Balochistan, 1977) and gas condensate at Dhodak (Punjab, 1977). During this period POL discovered oil at Meyal (Potwar, Punjab, 1968) and American Oil Company (AMOCO) discovered a small gas accumulation at Jandran (Balochistan, 1975). During 1980, Occidental Petroleum was awarded petroleum rights in Potwar Basin. In 1982, the company was awarded another license in the Potwar basin, which led to the biggest oil discovery at Dhurnal in 1984. The pace of the exploration activities was accelerated after the announcement of new Petroleum Policy in 1994. Thirty three (33) exploration licenses were granted during 1994-95 and fourteen (14) blocks during the year 1995-96. In 1996-97, however only four provisional awards were made due to import duties issue. The Central and Southern Indus basins had been regarded as gas prone areas until early 1981 when Union Texas Pakistan (UTP), a US Company (which eventually became BP Pakistan and more recently United Energy Pakistan), discovered oil at Khaskheli (Sindh) in the Lower Goru Sandstone of Cretaceous age. This opened a new oil province outside the traditional oil province of the Potwar in the north. After Sui, the discovery of oil in the Southern Indus Basin was the second milestone in the search for hydrocarbons in Pakistan. This led to a boom in exploration activity in Southern Indus Basin, resulting in several oil discoveries in an area regarded heretofore as of low potential for liquid hydrocarbons. BP acquired 3D seismic data during late 1990’s in Badin area, Southern Indus Basin, which resulted in the improvement of subsurface imaging and eventually the increase in success ratio for both exploration and development wells over small tilted fault blocks. This area attained the distinction of contributing more than 50% of the total oil production of the country by early 1990s. The first structure-cum-stratigraphic trap discovery, Miano (1993), was made in Middle Indus Basin by OMV. LASMO discovered Bhit Gas field in 1997 which was the first gas discovery in Kirthar Foldbelt in Cretaceous Pab Sandstone reservoir. Year 1998 turned out to be the year in which multiple milestones were achieved, which include major Gas-Condensate discovery, Zamzama (1998), by BHP in Kirthar Foredeep. In the same year, made a significant stratigraphic trap discovery at Sawan-1.. Premier Exploration drilled Zarghun South-1 well (1998) in Sulaiman Foldbelt and this resulted in first gas discovery in Jurassic Chiltan Limestone. The first natural gas discovery in the Punjab Platform was made by OGDCL at Nandpur in 1984 followed by Panjpir (1985) in Cretaceous / Jurassic reservoirs. In 1989, LASMO (of UK) made a gas discovery in Lower Goru Sandstone (Cretaceous) at Kadanwari, south of Khairpur-Jacobabad High, thus bridging a wide gap between PPL's Kandhkot Gas Field (1959) in the north and OGDCL's Bobi Oil Field (1988) in the south. Up to 1993, 92 oil and gas fields (39 oil, 33 gas and 20 oil / gas) had been discovered in various basins of Pakistan. OGDCL focused to explore one of the least explored Kohat Basin, by drilling Chanda-1 well on Shakardarra structure in 1999, which resulted in the first oil discovery in Jurassic Datta Sandstone in this basin Basin. Following this, MOL major major gas/oil discovery atManzalai-1 (2002) in Paleocene (Hangu & Lockhart formations) & Cretaceous (Lumshiwal Fm.) in Tal Block, Kohat Basin. Exploration campaign in this basin was then geared up which has so far resulted in total 10 discoveries since 1999 including Nashpa-1 (2009) and Makori East-1 (2010). Efforts to explore unconventional resources (tight sand and shale gas) have been initiated. Government of Pakistan has announced the policy for the exploration and development of tight gas reservoirs. Currently, the policy for shale gas is under consideration. Polish Oil & Gas Company (POGC) has made the first tight gas discovery in Upper Cretaceous Pab Sandstone at Rehman-1 (2009) in Kirthar Foldbelt, which is currently undergoing Appraisal phase.
Exploration in the Indus Offshore started in 1961 when Sun Oil Company (USA) carried out seismic surveys and then drilled three nearshore wells, Dabbo Creek-1 (1963), Patiani Creek-1 (1964), and Korangi Creek-1 (1964). Wintershall (Germany) conducted 9,400 Km of 24 fold seismic surveys during 1969-72 and drilled three wells, Indus Marine A-1 (1972), Indus Marine B-1 (1972) and Indus Marine C-1 (1975). Phillips Petroleum carried out 2,280 Km of 24 fold seismic survey (1977) in deeper part of the basin. Husky (USA) conducted about 2,380 Km of 24 fold seismic survey during 1976-78 and drilled one well, Karachi South A-I (1978). All these seven Indus Offshore wells, drilled till 1978, did not test movable hydrocarbons, although gas shows were reported in most wells. Seismic survey of maximum (48) fold coverage was acquired in 1982 by OGDCL-NORAD (a Pakistan-Norway collaboration). On the basis of this seismic data a well Pak Can-1 was drilled with Canadian assistance for OGDCL in 1986 and tested natural gas, albeit with uneconomical production potential by offshore standard though it confirmed a working petroleum system. Pak G2–1, drilled by Total Exploration & Production in 2004, targeted Eocene carbonate reservoirs on top of a seamount in ultra deep water. The well found good quality reservoir facies in Eocene/Oligocene carbonate buildups (very similar to Bombay High of India) but could not test hydrocarbons due to lack of charge. So far 13 wells have been drilled in the offshore Indus, of which only seven wells have tried to test the Indus Delta play and one the Carbonate Play, without any commercial success for one reason or the other. Presently, there are 15 offshore licenses which are being operated by national and multinational companies. In Makran offshore, the exploration well, Jal Pari-1-A, was drilled by Marathon (USA) in 1976-77 after conducting extensive seismic surveys. The well was abandoned due to uncontrollable overpressures. Ocean Petroleum of US conducted 2D seismic survey in mid 90’s and drilled two exploration wells namely Pasni-1 (1999) and Gawadar-1 (2000), both wells did not encounter reservoir targets. 3D seismic was acquired in early 2000’s for the first time in Makran Offshore. PPL drilled Pasni X-2 well (2005) in which reservoir was also not encountered.
At present a total area of 278,475 Sq Km though 134 Blocks is under Exploration including Exploration licences situated in all of the sedimentary basins of the country including under or unexplored parts of Balochistan Basin. The exploration activity in different basins has been directly proportional to the discoveries made therein, hence only a few breakthroughs are needed to accelerate the exploratory drilling in frontier and less explored basins. |
