ExxonMobil acquires 25% stake in offshore drilling in Pakistan

[ghazi52]

ExxonMobil acquires 25% stake in offshore drilling in Pakistan

A study would be conducted in the potential areas allocated to the four companies before undertaking drilling activities. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, US energy giant ExxonMobil has acquired 25% shareholding in offshore drilling in Pakistan.

Earlier, Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Italian energy firm Eni had 33% stake each in offshore drilling in the country. Now, ExxonMobil has acquired 25% shareholding, reducing the share of all partner companies to 25% each.

An agreement in that regard was signed at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Monday among ExxonMobil, Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL), PPL, Eni and OGDC.

ExxonMobil has vast experience of offshore drilling for the search of hydrocarbons and it will help boost efforts of partner companies for oil and gas exploration in the country.

Offshore drilling has brought a revolution in the US oil and gas market and even shaken the monopoly of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – a global grouping of major oil producers and exporters.

A new technology in offshore drilling is a major reason behind the boost to shale oil and gas exploration and officials believe ExxonMobil will help bring state-of-the-art technology to Pakistan. The company has been working on oil and gas exploration in different countries and Pakistan has now become part of its expansion plan.

“An agreement has been signed with ExxonMobil that will acquire 25% shares in offshore drilling in Pakistan,” GHPL Managing Director Mobin Saulat told The Express Tribune.

Another official said a study would be conducted in the potential areas allocated to the four companies before undertaking drilling activities.

In its first assessment, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) estimated that Pakistan had massive deposits of 10,159 trillion cubic feet of shale gas and 2.3 trillion barrels of shale oil – figures that were several times higher than those released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

According to the EIA assessment in April 2011, Pakistan had 206 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the lower Indus Basin, of which 51 trillion cubic feet were recoverable. However, in June 2013, it revised the estimate upwards to 586 trillion cubic feet, of which 105 trillion cubic feet were technically recoverable.

Apart from this, the EIA saw the presence of 9.1 billion barrels of shale oil that were technically recoverable out of estimated deposits of 227 billion barrels.

In its study, the USAID collected data of 1,611 wells, used 70% of data to prepare the study and sent samples to New Tech Laboratory in Houston for assessment.

Though technology is available in advanced countries for tapping shale reserves, environmental concerns, requirement of a huge quantity of water and high cost of drilling are real challenges. A well requires three to eight million barrels of water. Pakistan has water supplies, but the real issue is its disposal.

Estimates suggest shale gas will cost $10 per million British thermal units, which will come down with the increase in recovery of untapped reserves.

 

[Path-Finder]

WTF!!!!!!!

Why Exxonmobil?

 

[Enigma_]

lol watch all the support the US gives Pakistan now. No doubt all the Ummah Chummah's in our leadership were convinced by KSA/UAE to sign with the US.

 

[Imran Khan]

goving damn resources to USA ? kuch sharam hoti hai kuch haya hoti hai

 

[PaklovesTurkiye]

@MastanKhan

 

[MBT 3000]

more oil good, but US

 

[razgriz19]

I work for an oil company owned by ExxonMobil. Best company to work the safest in business by far anywhere in the world!

 

[Sulman Badshah]

Offshore drilling is much expensive than on land..

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Deal should be cancelled as the country is not aligned with Pakistan's National Defence

Shale Drilling causes earth quakes ~ would be dangerous for coastal cities of Karachi/Gawadar to be facing earth quakes emerging from shale drilling

 

[Kabira]

This is great news if true, as usual Pakistanis are dumb and can't see beyond yahudi sazish.

 

[Dalit]

Must be the current government or Nawaz Sharif behind this deal. Filthy Yanks hate Pakistan all day long, but want our oil and supply routes. They keep killing our people in broad daylight, but want to conduct business. Big big middle finger to these disgusting killer Yanks. They keep imposing themselves onto Pakistan. They are obsessed with Pakistan. We will deal with these Yankee cunts after the elections.

First, we deal with this cancer known as Nawaz Sharif during the elections for once and for all. An enemy of Pakistan. That is what Nawaz Sharif represents.

Deal should be cancelled as the country is not aligned with Pakistan's National Defence

Shale Drilling causes earth quakes ~ would be dangerous for coastal cities of Karachi/Gawadar to be facing earth quakes emerging from shale drilling

Off shore drilling is terrible for the environment. There are countless studies that have unequivocally proved the disastrously harmful side effects. Yankees will be more than happy to destroy anything in Pakistan. Killing Pakistanis is already part of their repertoire. Why not destroy the nature in Pakistan? That will be a bonus.

ExxonMobil is an absolutely disgusting company. They even mislead their own people in the US. This company is involved in massive unethical scandals. Read up on their exploitation and ill practices abroad. You might as well give this contract to an Indian company which will be a thousand times better.

 

[niaz]

Deal should be cancelled as the country is not aligned with Pakistan's National Defence

Shale Drilling causes earth quakes ~ would be dangerous for coastal cities of Karachi/Gawadar to be facing earth quakes emerging from shale drilling

For the benefit of the esteemed forum members who may or may not be familiar with the off-shore drilling & fracking, I would take the liberty of posting what I have learned during my more than 40 years of working in the petroleum industry.

It is not clear from this report if the licenses involved standard off-shore drilling or would it involve off-shore ‘Fracking’ as well. However, we must understand that no drilling process is completely without some kind of environmental risks.

Let us first start with normal offshore drilling. The drilling takes place by connecting the drill site to the platform using a flexible tube in which all of the equipment descends. The drill itself is a series of pipes all connected together in a drill string. Drilling mud/ drilling fluid is pumped into the well to cool the drill bit and remove the drill cuttings by floating the same back to the surface where it is filtered and pumped back.

Drilling mud is mostly Bentonite clay with Barite (Barium sulphate) and chalk. Bentonite being an absorbent Aluminium phyllosilicate.

Naturally, offshore drilling disrupts the sea bottom eco-system. Main risks are however water pollution through leakage of drilling fluid and oil spills, as happened recently in the US Gulf disaster. Additionally, there is the air pollution from the operating machinery and the gas flares. A single oil production rig would spew out roughly 50 tons of nitrogen oxides, 13 tons of carbon monoxide, 6 tons of sulphur dioxide and 5 tons of volatile organic chemicals in its 20-year operating life.

In the fracking on land, once the vertical well has been drilled, horizontal shoots are constructed to begin the process of finding the oil that is embedded within the rock. Highly pressurized fracking fluid is injected into the rock/shale through the horizontal shafts. This cracks open the rocks which allow the gas /oil to flow more freely which is then pumped out.

The offshore version usually employs a far less destructive fracturing technique causing breaks that extend less than 100 feet from the well-bore. The most common type of fracking offshore is less about breaking up the bedrock and more about clearing out sand and mud that has clogged up the path of hydrocarbons. Tools are used deep in the well to shoot gravel or pellets, along with seawater, acid and other chemicals to break up and filter out impediments.

The process is however essentially the same in both the cases as it pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, sand, and chemical mixtures into tunnels bored into the ocean rock formations.

Because the process is so recent, the full environmental impact of off-shore fracking has never been meaningfully assessed. It has been almost impossible by the independent Green Lobby to find out exactly how much of the acids and other fracking chemicals pumped down into the bottom of the offshore wells are leaked into the sea.

US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on water discharge permit operators to dump a certain amount of oil and chemicals into the sea along with their processed water. It is claimed the waste has been diluted enough before being pumped out that it does not have any impact on the ecosystem of the sea where the offshore well is located.

I have attempted to outline the process in the briefest and simplest words that I know. IMO there is not much danger of offshore fracking causing earthquakes in the coastal areas, however, damage to the marine life cannot be denied.

Energy bonanza always comes associated with the environmental costs. It is basically a question of “Cost versus benefits” ratio.

 

[bafxet]

Good news. Pakistan is in dire need of foreign investment

 

[Dalit]

For the benefit of the esteemed forum members who may or may not be familiar with the off-shore drilling & fracking, I would take the liberty of posting what I have learned during my more than 40 years of working in the petroleum industry.

It is not clear from this report if the licenses involved standard off-shore drilling or would it involve off-shore ‘Fracking’ as well. However, we must understand that no drilling process is completely without some kind of environmental risks.

Let us first start with normal offshore drilling. The drilling takes place by connecting the drill site to the platform using a flexible tube in which all of the equipment descends. The drill itself is a series of pipes all connected together in a drill string. Drilling mud/ drilling fluid is pumped into the well to cool the drill bit and remove the drill cuttings and by floating the same back to the surface where it is filtered and pumped back.

Drilling mud is mostly Bentonite clay with Barite (Barium sulphate) and chalk. Bentonite being an absorbent Aluminium phyllosilicate.

Naturally, offshore drilling disrupts the sea bottom eco-system. Main risks are however water pollution through leakage of drilling fluid and oil spills, as happened recently in the US Gulf disaster. Additionally, there is the air pollution from the operating machinery and the gas flares. A single oil production rig would spew out roughly 50 tons of nitrogen oxides, 13 tons of carbon monoxide, 6 tons of sulphur dioxide and 5 tons of volatile organic chemicals in its 20-year operating life.

In the fracking on land, once the vertical well has been drilled, horizontal shoots are constructed to begin the process of finding the oil that is embedded within the rock. Highly pressurized fracking fluid is injected into the rock/shale through the horizontal shafts. This cracks open the rocks which allow the gas /oil to flow more freely which is then pumped out.

The offshore version usually employs a far less destructive fracturing technique causing breaks that extend less than 100 feet from the well-bore. The most common type of fracking offshore is less about breaking up the bedrock and more about clearing out sand and mud that has clogged up the path of hydrocarbons. Tools are used deep in the well to shoot gravel or pellets, along with seawater, acid and other chemicals to break up and filter out impediments.

The process is however essentially the same in both the cases as it pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, sand, and chemical mixtures into tunnels bored into the ocean rock formations.

Because the process is so recent, the full environmental impact of off-shore fracking has never been meaningfully assessed. It has been almost impossible by the independent Green Lobby to find out exactly how much of the acids and other fracking chemicals pumped down into the bottom of the offshore wells are leaked into the sea.

US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on water discharge permit operators to dump a certain amount of oil and chemicals into the sea along with their processed water. It is claimed the waste has been diluted enough before being pumped out that it does not have any impact on the ecosystem of the sea where the offshore well is located.

I have attempted to outline the process in the briefest and simplest words that I know. IMO there is not much danger of offshore fracking causing earthquakes in the coastal areas, however, damage to the marine life cannot be denied.

Energy bonanza always comes associated with the environmental costs. It is basically a question of “Cost versus benefits” ratio.

It is undoubtedly harmful to the environment. It is needless to say that an unethical company like ExxonMobil only cares about mass profit. ExxonMobil has a terrible track record when it comes to being transparant and conducting business along ethical lines. Every dealing by this company is tainted with lies and utter deceit. You ought to know this like no other considering your vast experience in this particular field.

This is an extremely bad deal for Pakistan. This deal mustn't go through.

 

[Imran Khan]

This is great news if true, as usual Pakistanis are dumb and can't see beyond yahudi sazish.

its not about yahoodi sazish its about USA is not well wisher of Pakistan why benefiting a US company ? they are harming our interests everywhere