Pakistan to Rope In Russia, China to Develop Oil, Gas Blocks

Pakistan is in talks with China and Russia for the development of oil and gas blocks, which have been put on auction recently.

Citing sources The News said 60 blocs have been offered so far and four blocks would be given to foreign exploration companies via government to government agreement.

The Jati bloc in Sindh has already been given to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), while talks were underway with Chinese and Russian companies for developing other blocs.

Sources said that these four blocks would be in Sindh as the security and infrastructure situation was better there. Kufpec has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of intent with Pakistan to develop the Jati oil bloc in Sindh.

Kufpec is the operator in a partnership with Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) as stipulated by Pakistan’s provision of Petroleum Policy 2009. PPL is already partnering with Kufpec in the development of the Sukhpur bloc and Qadirpur gas field.

The Jati bloc, which is slated to host both conventional and unconventional reserves, will also benefit from PPL’s technical know-how and lead in the exploitation of unconventional reservoirs of tight and shale gas, the newspaper said.