None of the petroleum policies of the country have contributed positively to the exploration and production of tight gas (a hard-to-reach unconventional gas), which is abundant in Pakistan and government should announce a separate Tight Gas Policy with incentives to attract more investment in this sector.

This was stressed by Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in a statement. He said Pakistan can produce a sizeable quantity of gas from tight gas reservoirs to improve power generation. He said Pakistan has approximately 40 trillion cubic feet (TCF) reservoirs of tight gas, which was more than 37 TCF of conventional reserves in the country and which needed a separate policy to be explored optimally.

He said announcing a Tight Gas Policy will encourage E&P companies to bring in new technology and accelerate exploration & production of tight gas reservoirs in the country which will enable the government in generating more energy from gas.

Zahid Maqbool said at least 350 MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet per day) of discovered gas was lying unutilized in Kunnar, Pasaki, Tando Allah Yar and Sinjhoro fields due to litigation issues. He stressed upon the government to intervene for early resolution of these litigations so that country to take advantage of this gas to overcome energy crisis.

He said in Mehar, about 30 to 50 MMSCFD gas, discovered by a Malaysian company, was also stranded for the last four years due to security reasons and government should take measures to improve security arrangements in said area so that this gas could be brought into the main system.

ICCI President said that there were several low BTU undeveloped gas fields with huge reserves, such as, Kandra and Sarah West. He said priority should be given to mix gas from these fields with a small quantity of pipeline quality gas for raising the BTU which will make it useable for power generation. He was of the view that by bringing into production, the low BTU gas fields could add approximately 150 MMSCFD gas for immediate power generation.

He said country was losing between 12% to 15% gas due to lack of proper maintenance of gas infrastructure and added that this loss could be brought down to just 2% by properly maintaining the infrastructure by SNGPL and SSGCL.

He said that many existing gas producing fields have the capability of enhancing their production by 10 to 15 MMSCFD per day without damaging the reservoirs. However, they needed some price incentives to improve the production.