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The required oil and gas drilling 280 kilometres from Karachi has been completed.

Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 14th May, 2019) The offshore drilling near the Karachi coast has been completed.

According to details, the required oil and gas drilling 280 kilometres from Karachi has been completed.

According to a report published in a local newspaper, the joint venture comprising ENI and Exxon Mobil has completed 5,470 metre under-water drilling with an estimated cost of Rs14 billion.

The company has got access to the oil and gas reserves.

The drilling company has started estimating the exact quantity of oil and gas reserves. This process will be completed within three days while the report on quantity of the oil and gas will be prepared in one week.

The offshore drilling is a joint venture of ENI, Exxon Mobil, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited, which was being carried out at estimated exploration cost of $ 75 million.

The consortium has started drilling activities on January 13, 2019.

Experts believe that there are huge hydrocarbon deposits, sufficient for 25 to 30-year needs of the country, if proven. The discovery is anticipated to yield gas flows which could be 'as big as Sui field,' with estimated reserves of three to eight trillion cubic feet (TCF), or 25-40 percent of the country's total gas reserves.

Minister for Petroleum Omar Ayub Khan and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar Friday visited the offshore Indus G-Block called Kekra-I, some 230-km off the Karachi coast, and reviewed pace of the drilling activities.