Country’s oil, gas reserves drop 6pc in Dec

KARACHI: Country’s total proven oil and gas reserves fell six percent in December FY2022, for the most part owing to an over a decade-long drought of big discoveries and unabated consumption, analysts report said on Friday.

The decline in reserves comes at a time when international hydrocarbon prices are hovering around their highest levels, causing hardship for the countries like Pakistan, which are highly dependent on imported oil and gas.

As per the latest hydrocarbon reserves data by Pakistan Petroleum Information Services (PPIS), oil reserves during the month under review dropped 16 percent year-on-year, arriving at 223 million barrels compared to 266 million in the same month of previous fiscal.

Arif Habib Limited (AHL), a brokerage, in a report said one of the major causes of it was depletion in oil reserves at major fields such as Joyamair, Kunar, Mela, Nashpa, Maramzai, Adhi, Pasakhi/Pasakhi North East, and Mardankhel by 97 percent, 85 percent, 74 percent, 37 percent, 32 percent, 17 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Whereas, oil reserves of Chanda and Makori East registered a hefty growth of 41 percent and 77 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, total gas reserves in the month under review dropped by 6 percent year-on-year, settling at 19,986 bcf.

Gas reserves at fields such as Qadirpur, Nashpa, Kandhkot, Shahdadpur, Mari, and Uch, dropped 14 percent, 8 percent, 7 percent, 6 percent, 5 percent, and 5 percent year-on-year, respectively. Meanwhile, Sui gas reserves jumped 20 percent year-on-year.

In December 2021, oil and gas reserves from new fields such as Turk Deep North, Turk South, Mulaki West, Taj, Pandhi, Siab, Sial, Fazil, and Jugan were added to country’s total reserves.

Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at AHL, said the country didn’t witness any major gas and oil discovery in the last ten to fifteen years.

“Though, figures of December are slightly lower but in the present scenario, when global oil and gas prices are surging, this is worrisome,” Abbas said.

He said domestic gas production fell to 3,000 MMCFD compared to 4,000-4,500 MMCFD some years back, forcing the country to rely more on imported gas.

The price of LNG is hitting the record levels in the global market especially after Russia-Ukraine war.

Oil reserves of PPL, OGDC, and POL for December 2021 reduced 24 percent, 14 percent, and 28 percent year-on-year, respectively. Whereas, MARI’s oil reserves showed a growth of 7 percent year-on-year.

As far as gas reserves were concerned, OGDC, MARI and POL’s reserves went down 4 percent, 4 percent, and 5 percent year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, gas reserves at PPL depicted an uptick of one percent year-on-year.