Pakistan Well Beats Polish Hopes
After hydraulic fracturing, an appraisal well in Pakistan flowed higher than the Polish state-run operator PGNiG had expected, it said December 22, as gas output from Rizq-2 ran at four times the rate achieved during initial testing.
Once connected to the production facilities, the well will add about 140,000-170,000m³ to PGNiG’s daily natural gas output in Pakistan, or between 124,000 and 148,000 m³ of high-methane equivalent. Total production from PGNiG’s Pakistani fields will reach 1mn m³/day, or about 850,000 m³ of high-methane equivalent, it said.
The first tests in the Rizq-2 appraisal well were carried out in October 2017. The initial flow rate achieved at the time was 28 m³/min. After a hydraulic fracturing treatment performed in late November and early December 2017, the well flowed at a rate of around 128 m³/min.
The Rizq-2 appraisal well was drilled in the Rizq field under the Kirthar licence, in Pakistan's southeastern province of Sindh. Connection to the production facilities is planned to be completed by the end of February 2018. PGNiG owns 70% and state-owned Pakistan Petroleum the rest.
PGNiG produces natural gas from two fields in Pakistan: Rehman and Rizq. The latter was discovered in 2015 and brought on stream in November 2016. The provider of drilling services for PGNiG in Pakistan is a PGNiG Group company, Exalo Drilling.
PGNiG and other unconventional gas explorers in Poland earlier this decade had hoped to use hydraulic fracturing to commercially produce shale gas in eastern Europe. But the last significant independent shale gas explorer in Poland, San Leon, handed back its remaining shale gas acreage earlier this month; PGNiG's own attentions in Poland have focused instead on exploring for more conventional gas.