According to the department of US Energy Information Administration (USEIA) Pakistan has 51 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of Shale Gas only in the Southern Pakistan which are technically recoverable while huge potential exists in the other basins of the country.
1. Pakistan has attained maturity in most current producing basins, while exploration in offshore Pakistan is highly capital investment and has not yielded positive results so far, it is expected that new fields will be predominantly smaller gas fields. Therefore, policy initiatives need to be taken to explore and develop Shale Gas resources.
2. Currently no Shale Gas is being produced in Pakistan and significant work is required to kick start this high potential energy source. The pilot projects in Pakistan are to be treated as research and development work with economic viability for production. The competent authority shall , in consultation with the E & P companies , ascribe work units to different types of technical activities including commercial economics studies, unconventional surveys, specialised G&G studies and multicomponent seismic surveys as well as well operations such as horizontal drilling, multilateral drilling , multi-phase hydraulic fraccing etc that are to be performed during the course of specific pilot project(s).
3. Exploring, drilling, and in turn the development and production of Shale Gas is much more difficult and requires "State-of-the-art-technology" entailing massive investments with longer recovery cycle.
4. In order to explore/produce every molecule, the Government is in the process of preparation of Shale Gas Framework providing lucrative incentives to E & P Companies to jump start Shale Gas exploration and enhance the gas production to meet the energy crisis in Pakistan.