ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday stressed the need for comprehensive planning to meet gas requirements of both domestic and industrial sectors in the country.
The PM said this while chairing a meeting to discuss demand and supply of gas and problems faced by the sector.
The prime minister noted that the gas-related matters are not restricted to one province or region but the whole country. “Therefore, it is important that the future strategy on this matter is formulated after mutual consultations.”
Imran Khan directed his special assistant Nadeem Babar to furnish all the matters regarding gas before the Council of Common Interests (CCI). In addition, he said consultations should be held with energy experts in order to find a durable solution to gas-related matters.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers Pervaiz Khattak, Shibli Faraz, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Asad Umar and Umar Ayub Khan, and special assistants Nadeem Babar and Dr Shahbaz Gill.
According to the US EIA and a study carried out by USAID in co-ordination with DGPC at the the time, the well logs of 124 wells were studied and it was concluded at the time that Pakistan has vast shale gas and oil reserves in the Lower Indus Basin with recoverable assets of 200 TCF gas and 14 Billion barrels of shale oil. The US has drilled about 30,000 shale wells and their cost per well comes to USD5 million/well with a production of 12 MMCFD of gas per well and 1,000 barrels of shale oil per well. The US which was a net importer of both oil and gas became one of the largest exporters. At one point, because of production of shale oil, the US actually became the largest oil producer in the world. We should assign our State owned companies like OGDCL and PPL to exploit the shale resources of the country to meet our fossil fuels requirements for the next 100 years. We should ask for technical help from the American companies involved in shale exploration.