Joint study of Indus, Makran offshore areas: PPL, Orion Energy sign agreement

Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Orion Energy Plc signed an agreement for joint study regarding offshore exploration, and both signed another memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Kandhkot Gas-to-Power Project on Friday.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer PPL Asim Murtaza and CEO and Director Orion Energy David M Thomas signed the documents on behalf of their respective companies. British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Adam Thomson and Nadim Khan Executive Director Pakistan Britain Trade and Investment Forum and partner at Lewis Silkin LLP were also present on the occasion.
PPL and Orion Energy have plan to jointly study Indus and Makran offshore areas for hydrocarbon potential. Both companies will dedicate teams and resources for the study, which is expected to take around four months, and on identification of prospective sites, further exploration may be conducted. "At a later stage, technological partners may also be brought in for state of the art data acquisition, processing and identification of potential structures and reservoirs. Subsequent to the study, further exploration and production may require investments of around $100 million," it was stated.
In his welcome address, Adam Thomson, the British High Commissioner to Pakistan said, "Today's signing is another step towards the UK and Pakistan's ambitious joint trade and investment targets. This is a clear signal by UK companies of their wish to do business in Pakistan with Pakistani partners in the energy sector."
He said investment of any UK based company in energy sector of Pakistan had great importance to British government. "Two years ago Prime Minister of Pakistan and British Premier mutually agreed to bring the volume of investment and trade to around $2.5 billion by 2015," he said.
He said both countries were following the right track of Cupertino and they could do and should exceed the set investment target because both were natural business partners and already working together in almost every sector of the economy.
In Europe, he said, British companies were leading in supplying energy technology both in traditional and alternate energy.
Talking briefly about his company, Asim Murtaza Khan said PPL was a frontline player in energy sector of Pakistan with 71 percent holdings of Government of Pakistan. It is producing 186,000 barrels oil per day. It met 24 percent of energy need of the country currently, he said.
So far 17 failed offshore explorations drillings in Pakistan had taken place and discouraged the exploring companies, but that initiative of PPL and Orient indicated that hope was not lost, he said.
He said geology of Makran region was very complex and state of the art technology would be used in exploration which the Orion Energy acquired. The exploration activities in Makran would be extended to Indus delta at a later stage, he announced.
David Thomas said his company was here to help Pakistan to meet the increasing demand of energy, adding his company decided to work with the PPL for having a strong technical team with good corporate governance.
While talking to Business Recorder, David Thomas said Pakistan Muslim League-N government won the general elections with simple majority and formed the government without any alliance that showed foreign investors that there was a political stability in the country.
He was of the view that security was not a major problem for foreign investors in Pakistan. "We faced life threats in UK from IRA during 90s, but life is going on," he said.