Government sets target to produce 33.50 mbbl oil, 1.473 tcf gas in 2018-19

The government has set an ambitious target to produce 33.50 million barrel (mbbl) crude oil and 1.473 trillion cubic feet (tcf) natural gas through indegenious resources during the year 2018-19.

 “The indigenous gas supply will be supplemented through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports to the tune of 9.0 million tons, while the supply-demand gap in both oil and gas sectors will be met through import of crude oil and petroleum products,” official sources told APP.

Answering a question, they said oil and gas Exploration and Production (E&P) companies have planned to drill 90 wells in different areas across the country. Under the plan, as many as 50 exploratory and 40 development wells would be drilled in a bid to make the country self-sufficient in the energy sector, the added.

During the last five years, the sources said, the E&P companies drilled 445 new wells, out of which 221 were exploratory, adding that the increased exploration activities resulted in 116 new oil and gas discoveries.

Besides accelerating efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in production of petroleum products, the government has signed around 15 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with different countries during the last five years to enhance cooperation in the field of energy.

The agreements were signed with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Qatar, Iran, China, Russia, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom and Kuwait.

APP