Hungarian Oil and Gas Company, MOL is to add 28 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) gas and 7,600 barrels of crude oil into the system from Makhori East-III field . Sources told that MOL was the operator of the Tal Block located in Kohat Plateau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The country will have 300 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per day . This additional production of crude oil, gas and LPG will help save an estimated $800 millions per annum for Pakistan”s spending on the import of oil and LPG.
Tal Block is jointly being explored by Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL); Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL); Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL) and Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL).
Officials said that within next few months, Pakistan”s local production of LPG was expected to increase by around 700 tons per day; crude oil production was likely to cross 100,000 barrel mark per day from current production of around 70,000 barrel per day and natural gas production by 700 MMCFD.
An official of MOL said the completion of the project would cost $240 millions and it would take 20 months which was a record time. The total capacity of the field is to produce 30,000 barrel of crude oil/condensate, 450 tons of LPG and 150 MMCFD of gas per day.
About 22,000 barrels per day of crude oil is expected to come into the system from Makori and another 21,000 barrel per day from Nashpa field being operated by OGDCL.
At present, gas production from MOL”s TAL block is around 320 MMCFD and 8,760 bbl/d of condensate/oil, which accounts for eight percent and 12 percent of country”s total gas and condensate/oil production respectively; and which enables MOL Pakistan along with TAL Joint Venture Partners to cater almost 100 percent gas demand of the province of KP. In the future the production is expected to increase further based on the commencement of EWT Production from Makori East-1 and Tolanj X-1.
The MOL has finalised the installation of Makori Gas Processing Facilities (GPF) in TAL block, which will have a capacity to process 30,000 bbl/d of oil/condensate and 150 MMCFD of gas. After the installation of the gas processing facilities, the company will be producing up to 300-350 ton of LPG per day.
According to industry sources, the TAL Joint Venture has installed an LPG plant at Makori gas field and intends to expand its production/processing facilities to cater to the additional production from existing fields under appraisal and any upcoming discovery from the area.
Total local production of LPG stands at roughly 450,000 tons per year of which refineries accounted for 55 percent, while gas fields contribute about 45 pecent. “Up to 80,000 tons of LPG is imported, while another 25,000 tons are smuggled into the country from Turkmenistan and Iran,” sources said.