Strategic Actions For 2020 Exploration Bid Round to Secure Exploration-Based Low Cost #Oilgas Reserves

#PakExplorationBidround2020

?Energy ministry’s high level delegation including #OGDCL and #PPL delegates were in Houston and Calgary in mid September, 2019, on a soft launch of next bid round of Exploration #Oilgas Blocks, ahead of the UAE roadshow during ADIPEC when the bid round plan will be formally announced!

Typically, IOCs and Independents as well as small niche’ operators are usually keen to farm into geologically and geopolitically de-risked regions with pre-arranged operational access! Key is to package a deal for the onboarding, JBAs (Joint Bid Agreements) or Farm-ins of such explorers based on customized License strategy & work programs for each Region or basin. Success in this case depends on how sensibly we devise our strategic actions and how these are executed in the field, with the right technology & skills, in the right order and structured & agile manner. To that end, summarized below are two of the few important strategic actions documented earlier to help the cause [1].

Engaging IOCs in Frontier Basins’ High CAPEX/OPEX Exploration Programs and Accessing International High-value Barrels and LNG through Swapping:

Using their vast database, deep knowledge and local experience, our NOCs like OGDCL & PPL can access and operate the remote under-explored terrains more effectively in the early life of a basin or licensed acreage. Such activities include combing of the acreage, G&G evaluations to high-grade prospective corridors with traffic light maps of the geological Plays, running initial seismic surveys, identifying drilling opportunities and creating that minimum threshold value through *an initial smaller “risk investment*. This early value creation and de-risking of subsurface plays ‘n prospects bring the above drilling opportunities within the risk appetite of IOCs and Independents. Many of these international players have assets in other emerging basins of the world, and prefer to have partners to share equity with in order to diversify their portfolio and risk. Such strategically selected JV partners , open to swapping “equity” in their overseas exploration blocks, offer additional benefits of knowledge, technology and experience exchange and foreign “risk investment” for capital intensive parts such as oil & gas field development, processing facilities and distribution network in Pakistan. In return, the country can book and access exploration-based reserves overseas while securing energy at the source in overseas basins (oil, LNG or gas through IP-TAPI pipelines) at a 30-40% lower cost. 

Right Project For The Right Business/Operator: 

There are important learnings of awarding blocks in the frontier and technologically challenging areas of Fold Belt and Offshore to the companies with limited resource and technical capacity. Similarly, small sub-economic drilling opportunities in fast maturing Play fairways may not be of interest to the large IOCs or Independents. A rationale of right project for the right business/operator has to be followed, vis-à-vis company’s size, capacity and SWOT analysis of the operator. For the later case, regulators and NOCs or Joint Ventures (JV) may have to engage smaller more appropriate Independent E&P companies for tier-2 and -3 acreage of smaller opportunities (Basin 1a in the linked article [1]). 

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/challenges-strategies-sustain-exploration-driven-oil-gas-nadeem/

About the Author:

Dr. Nadeem Ahmad is an avid technical writer in the field of exploration of oil and gas. With MS and Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from USA, he has rich experience of petroleum basins of North America, Northwest Europe, MENA region and Pakistan. He is Fellow of the Geological Society London, Active member of AAPG and serving on its Grants-in-aid Committee, past Chairman of Technical Committee of PAPG-SPE Pakistan Annual Technical Conference, and Chairman of PAPG. He teaches voluntarily and serving on the Board of Studies of three universities, with commitment to the mentoring and professional development in the Upstream petroleum sector of Pakistan.   

https://papg.org.pk

#oilgas #geoscience #upstream #uep #ogdcl

 #weatherford  #schlumberger #Halliburton

Reference:

[1] Ahmad, N., 2018, Challenges and Strategies to Sustain E&P driven Oil & Gas Supplies to Pakistan. Article in The News and Jang newspaper supplement for Annual Technical Conference, 2018.