There has been much debate about Pakistan’s oil reserves following yesterday’s announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that a deal has been agreed upon with Pakistan to develop its oil resources.
“Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive oil reserves,” the U.S. President said.
The Truth About Pakistan’s Oil Reserves
Pakistan currently relies heavily on oil imports to meet its domestic needs. During the outgoing fiscal year (FY25), the country imported petroleum products worth $15.93 billion, accounting for almost 30 percent of its total imports.
Moreover, during FY25, Pakistan’s local oil production declined by 11.8 percent and stood at 62,225 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
So, Do We Have Any Reserves?
Despite its reliance on imports, Pakistan likely possesses significant shale-based oil and gas reserves.
According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country could have technically recoverable reserves amounting to 9.1 billion barrels of oil and 586 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
In Pakistan, the shale gas and oil assessment is restricted to the extensive Central and Southern Indus Basins, together called the Lower Indus Basin. The shales in this region have sourced the significant volumes of conventional oil and gas discovered and produced in Pakistan, the report notes.
In September last year, a senior official stated that a significant reserve of petroleum and natural gas had been discovered within the country’s territorial waters.
In a statement today, Petroleum Division Parliamentary Secretary Mian Khan Bugti said that considerable work is currently underway in Sindh in this regard, while oil reserves are also present in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which the government is working to extract.
Bottom Line
According to various studies, Pakistan does have sizeable unexplored oil reserves. However, the key question is how much of these reserves are recoverable. This is something that will only be confirmed once large-scale exploration efforts get underway.
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