Pakistan had 22 oil and gas discoveries in 2 years

Pakistan's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Syed Naveed Qamar, said 59 onshore and offshore exploration wells were drilled in Pakistan since January 2008, resulting in 22 oil and gas discoveries.

Of these, 18 are under appraisal. The other 4 discoveries were initially appraised as having a reserve of 3.27 mm bbl of oil and 404 bn cf of gas.

Naveed Qamar said the government granted 126 licenses to different companies for exploration in Pakistan. Present production of crude is 66,390 bpd, which is processed at local refineries, he added.

To meet demand for petroleum products, Khlifa Coastal Oil refinery project with a capacity of 250,000 bpd and Byco Petroleum Pakistan refinery project with capacity of 115,000 bpd are proposed to be set up in the Balochistan province.