KARACHI (DNA) – Offshore drilling, through a joint venture of four oil giants, near Karachi coast on Indus G-Block (Kekra-1) has been completed after four months of hard work.The process spudded the Kekra-1 well to the depth of 5,470 m at a cost of Rs14 billion.Currently, ExxonMobil, ENI, Oil and Gas Development Company, and Pakistan Petroleum Limited are conducting the drill stem test (DST) to determine the real size of the oil and gas reserves in the Kekra-1 well, located around 280 km away from Karachi.The DST is expected to be completed within next 48 to 72 hours, and if found, a report regarding the total quantity of oil and gas reserves would be prepared within a week.The required infrastructure would be built and deployed in the sea after analysing the reserves of oil and gas.Pakistan’s import bill could be decreased by billions of dollars annually, if the total reservoir quantity is huge.The group of multinational companies had begun offshore drilling on 11th January 2019. The drilling was expected to be completed in March 2019 as per initial estimation. ENI ensured the completion of offshore drilling despite critical situations faced during the drilling process.According to sources, the drilling was a challenging task as the joint venture was running out of time to complete the drilling process as sea waves generally become unstable by the end of May. The stability of a drilling ship by the end of May would have been quite a daunting task.
