ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday signed agreements to issue new licenses for oil exploration in the country, the ministry of petroleum said, with the projects aimed at attracting investment and meeting growing energy requirements.
“Government of Pakistan today [Thursday] executed Petroleum Concessions (PCAs) and Exploration Licences (ELs) of critical Blocks in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan,” the ministry of petroleum said in a statement.
The statement quoted Omar Ayub Khan, Federal Minister for Petroleum, as saying the agreements, signed in Islamabad, were part of the incumbent government’s reform agenda and efforts to attract investment in the petroleum sector.
The exploration blocks are located in the province of Sindh and Balochistan and involve the Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum Limited.
“The minimum firm work commitment for these blocks is US $ 13.61 million for a period of three years,” the statement said. “The companies entering into agreements today [Thursday] would be obligated to spend a minimum of US $ 30,000/year in each block.”
Last month, the consortium exploring the Kekra-1 well off the coast of Pakistan ended drilling operations after no reserves of oil and gas were found, said a spokesman for Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd, one of the Pakistani partners, along with Italy’s ENI SpA and Exxon Mobile Corp.
News that the project was abandoned came as a blow to the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan which had pinned high hopes on offshore oil and gas discoveries to help with both the country’s chronic energy deficiencies and its ballooning trade deficit.
Pakistan is believed to have rich mineral resources, with conventional gas reserves estimated at 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 560 billion cubic meters, and shale gas reserves, which are so far untouched, at more than 100 tcf.
The government is planning to offer dozens of new gas field concessions, hoping that improved security in recent years will reassure foreign investors who have been deterred in the past by the threat of militant violence.
Pakistan has been under mounting pressure to shore up its creaking energy infrastructure, both to provide more reliable supplies of oil and gas to its growing population of more than 200 million and to cut reliance on expensive foreign imports.
The country recently signed an accord for a $6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund that helped send its rupee currency to an all time low and highlighted the need to cut import bills.
Pakistan issues new licenses for oil exploration in Sindh, Balochistan provinces
Pakistan issues new licenses for oil exploration in Sindh, Balochistan provinces
- Petroleum minister says new deals part of government's reform agenda, efforts to attract petroleum investment
- Pakistan has been under mounting pressure to shore up its creaking energy infrastructure
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
