ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) has discovered one of the largest oil and gas reserves from its Jhandial well, Punjab, in the last five years.
Jhandial well is located in Ikhlas Block in Northern Potwar, about 83 kilometres southwest of Islamabad in Attock district, said an official.
POL holds 80% shares in the block whereas the Attock Oil Company (AOC) has a 20% stake. The block is located in a prospective but geologically complex area surrounded by a number of significant oil discoveries. The drilling of the deep exploratory well Jhandial-1 was proposed after acquisition and interpretation of recently acquired 3D seismic data. The well was drilled to a total depth of 18,497 feet to test the Eocene and Paleocene carbonate reservoirs. During the testing, significant amount of hydrocarbons (oil and gas) were found in the Sakessar, Nammal(Eocene) and Patala (Paleocene) formations with flow rates of 21 million cubic feet of gas and 2,520 barrels of oil per day at choke size of 40/64?at well head flowing pressure of 3,768 psi, 19 million cubic feet of gas and 2,160 barrels of oil per day at choke size of 32/64?at well head flowing pressure of 5,364 psi and 16.5 million cubic feet of gas and 1,630 barrels of oil per day at choke size of 28/64?at well head flowing pressure of 6,290 psi.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity of the oil is around 40ø and the gas has a rich calorific value of 1,161 British Thermal Units per standard cubic feet of gas. The gas composition analysis indicates that it contains about 86% methane, 7.2% ethane and 2.9% propane. The LPG content of the gas is about 2.5 metric tons per million cubic feet of gas. The well will be connected to the production line within two weeks and will gradually attain full potential. Structurally, Jhandial is a thrusted anticline just north of the Dhurnal Oil field. It has a closed area of about 15 square kilometers, with a thick net reservoir column from top of the Chorgali Formation (Eocene) to the base of the Paleocene Formation. Preliminary initial estimated recoverable reserves of the field are in the range of at least 292 billion standard cubic feet of gas and 23 million barrels of oil.
The Jhandial discovery is expected to contribute to the country’s energy sustainability while also having a positive impact on the future of exploratory efforts in the block and surrounding areas.
Published in Daily Times, October 5th 2017.
