Karachi: Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) is pondering on acquiring an exploration and production company in Africa or the Middle East after successfully raising a sum of Rs53.4b on the maturity of Pakistan Investment Bonds it had subscribed to in 2012 for settlement of receivables from circular debt.
Managing Director of OGDC, Zahid Mir said that the entity has never encountered any liquidity issues and the entity has been involved in digging a higher number of wells and a huge area is being explored for seismic recordings. He told that an Austrian company OMV involved in upstream and downstream businesses has put itself for sale, which is a probable acquisition target for OGDCL and a detailed look is being done into the assets of the company.
Majority of OGDCL’s receivable are owed by the gas sector which currently stand at roughly $1.5b. OGDCL is looking to grow and expanding its footprint abroad will help it attain that goal as currently no exploration block is on sale or available for bidding in Pakistan.
The state-owned company is among the country’s largest in exploration and production center holding acreage of 33pc total area under exploration in Pakistan, which translates into 11,604 square kilometers under its jurisdiction.
