Pakistan’s oil and gas production dropped 3% and 2.1% respectively, during the week ended September 08, as production was halted amid flash floods.

The decline in oil and gas production comes at a time when the country is already suffering from an energy crisis that features prolonged power outages for residential, industrial and commercial consumers.

The oil production dropped almost 3% to 67,911 barrels per day (bpd) in the week ended September 08 compared to 70,020 bpd in the prior week, said Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a note, citing Pakistan Petroleum Information Service (PPIS) data.

Similarly, gas output dropped 2.1% on a week-on-week basis to 3,174 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) compared to 3,242 mmcfd in the previous week.

“Oil production declined given annual turnaround (ATA) at Maramzai, Manzalai and Mamikhel tagged with shut-in at fields such as Bolan East due to flash floods,” stated the note.

“Similarly, gas production reduced owing to ATA at aforementioned TAL block fields. Gas production from Uch witnessed a fall due to blast at sale gas line 26.”

Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at AHL, told Business Recorder fields in Sindh are the worst-affected. “However, the decline is not much and the production is expected to resume shortly,” he added.

Pakistan has been ravaged by torrential rains resulting in flash floods from north to south that have resulted in over 1,400 deaths while causing large-scale infrastructure damage, especially in Sindh and Balochistan.

Government officials estimate that the damage in this flood would now only slowdown the GDP growth rate, but would cost the economy at least $18 billion.

Last week, Mari Petroleum Company Limited announced a temporary suspension of production operations at its Zarghun South Gas Field and Ziarat Block after flash floods adversely impacted gas pipelines and road infrastructure in Balochistan.