Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has discovered huge gas and oil reserves in the Wali exploration block near Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The discovery is being considered as the biggest one in the province in the last ten years. They are also believed to be either equal or larger in size than the Nashpa block in Karak in KP whose oil and gas reserves are equal to 95 million barrels of oil.
According to a well-placed source, OGDCL has unearthed the reserves in the Wali-1 exploratory well. There are three formations in the well which are known as Kawagar, Hungu, and Lockhart. Once developed, the Wali-1 well can provide 36 mmcfd of gas and 2,950 barrels of oil per day.
Kawagar formation can supply 11 mmcfd of gas and 1,000 barrels of oil per day. Hungu formation can provide 11 mmcfd of gas and 950 barrels of oil per day. Lockhart formation can supply 14 mmcfd of gas and 1,000 barrels of oil per day.
The third formation will be developed at the earliest. On the directions of OGDCL, the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) has started working on laying down a 55 km long pipeline to connect the formation with the national reserves.
The source added that Modular Dynamics Testing (MDT) and Drill Stem Test (DST) have confirmed the presence of large oil and gas reserves in the Wali exploration block which could take four to five years to develop completely.
Besides oil and gas, there are abundant reserves of LPG in the Wali block as well which have not been discovered at this time. OGDCL is also formulating a plan to set up an LPG extraction plant at Wali block.
Moreover, the presence of carbon dioxide in the Wali reserves is 4.2% which is more than the 3% recommended by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). Reducing the percentage of carbon dioxide would increase the extraction volumes of gas and oil from the Wali block.
Currently, OGDCL produces 37,000 barrels of oil per day which is 48% of the country’s total production. It also produces 900 mmcfd of gas per day which is 29% of the total production. It also produces 850 metric tons of LPG which is 37% of total production.
