Pakistan Petroleum goes global with first exportation well in Middle East

State-owned PPL said in a notification sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday that it had drilled an exploration well-named Madain-1 on Block 8 in Iraq on April 14, 2019. (REUTERS)

• PPL is the first Pakistani oil and gas firm to drill abroad, spuds gas exploration well in Iraq on April 14, 2019
• Pakistan Petroleum and subsidiaries hold 43 exploration blocks of which PPL operates 26, including one in Iraq

KARACHI: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has become the first Pakistani oil and gas firm to go global, the minister for petroleum said, as it started drilling an exploration well in Iraq where gas deposits of 200-300 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) are expected to be found.
State-owned PPL said in a notification sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday that it had drilled an exploration well-named Madain-1 on Block 8 in Iraq on April 14, 2019. The block is located in the Mesopotamian basin and “surrounded by areas that have several large oil and gas fields,” the notification added.
“PPL’s foray into the international competitive energy markets and its success is heartening and a resounding success for this division, the company and indeed the entire nation,” Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan said in a statement on Wednesday. 
In its statement to the stock exchange, PPL said the well was being drilled on an integrated project management basis by a Chinese drilling contractor, ZEPEC, and marked a significant milestone in the company’s history as its first international exploration.
“The Madain-1 prospect matured with the help of a 3D seismic survey carried out by the company over a 300-square-kilometer area of the block that spanned around 6,000 square kilometers,” the notification said. “There are multiple reservoir targets in Madain-1 that will be drilled to a depth of approximately 5,000 meters.”
The PPL and its subsidiaries hold a portfolio of 43 exploration blocks of which PPL operates 26, including one block in Iraq.
The project is wholly owned by the government of Iraq while PPL will draw remuneration from revenues as per the agreement signed with the government.
“There is no estimation when it [project] would come online but it seems that it would take 5 to 6 months to materialize,” said Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited.
Lucky Cement, another privately owned Pakistani company, already has a footprint in Iraq with a cement grinding unit in Basra and a greenfield clinker manufacturing facility in Samawah, expected to achieve commercial production in the last quarter of financial year 2019-20.