BY IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan could prospect for oil and gas in Libya as part of its efforts to enhance its reserves, an official accompanying President Asif Ali Zardari on his state visit to the African nation says.
Speaking to Dawn from Tripoli, Asim Hussain, the prime minister’s adviser on petroleum, said Pakistan’s two state-owned oil exploration and production companies had the expertise for overseas operations.
“We would like to see Pakistani companies entering into joint ventures with Libyan or other international firms operating here (in Libya),” he added.
To this end Zahid Hussain and Khalid Rehman, the respective heads of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) are in Libya as part of Zardari’s delegation.
OGDCL is Pakistan’s largest exploration and production company, while PPL is the country’s largest gas producer.
PPL had participated in the third Libyan Gas Bid Round in December 2007 along with OGDCL. The two companies had recently renewed efforts to enter overseas operations and signed an MoU last month to extend technical cooperation in the joint pursuit of new ventures in the country and abroad, mainly in the Middle East and Africa.
PPL has also entered its first international joint venture with OMV, an Austrian exploration and production company, in Yemen’s Block-29 in a 50:50 partnership.
The PPL is in an advanced stage of being pre-qualified in Iraq, which has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Canada.
Pakistan consumes 345,000 barrels of oil a day. It ranks 34th among global consumers of oil.