KARACHI: A top security official was quoted by DawnNewsTV on Friday as stating that a significant natural gas and petroleum deposit had been found in Pakistan’s territorial seas. The deposit is so enormous that its development could alter the course of the nation.
An official with knowledge of the development claims that a three-year survey was conducted in cooperation with a friendly nation to confirm the existence of oil and gas deposits.
Pakistan has been able to locate the deposits thanks to the geographic survey, and the government has been informed about the resources present in Pakistani waters by the necessary agencies.
The official described it as an attempt to capitalize on the “blue water economy” and stated that bids and exploratory plans were being reviewed, indicating that work on the project may begin soon.
But he said that the real process of drilling wells and extracting oil might take years.
However, the “blue water economy” may produce more than simply gas and oil; the ocean can also be mined for a number of other valuable minerals and elements.
According to the official, the nation’s economic fortunes may be improved by seizing the initiative and moving swiftly.
According to some estimations, this discovery represents the world’s fourth-largest oil and gas deposit.
With an estimated 3.4 billion barrels of oil reserves, Venezuela is now regarded to dominate the world, although the US has the largest undeveloped shale oil reserves.
Iraq, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Iran make up the remaining five spots.
Former Ogra member Muhammad Arif stated in an interview with DawnNewsTV that while optimism is warranted, there is never a guarantee that the reserves would be found as anticipated.
He responded that it depends on the volume and rate of production recovery if asked if these reserves are sufficient to meet the nation’s energy needs. “If these are oil reserves, we can replace imported oil; if they are gas reserves, we can replace LNG imports.”
But before the drilling procedure starts and the prospects for the reserves are examined, he issued a warning saying that this is just “wishful thinking.”
He made the point that extracting reserves from an offshore location may take four to five years, and that exploration alone required a substantial investment of about $5 billion.
He stated that further funding would be required for wells and the construction of infrastructure in order to extract the reserves and generate fuel if the exploration proved to be fruitful in finding reserves.
