For more than six decades, Pakistan's exploration and production (E&P) companies have been tasked with discovering and developing domestic oil and gas reserves to meet the country's growing energy needs. Despite pockets of success, the sector's overall performance has fallen short of national requirements. Production has stagnated, discoveries have become smaller and less frequent, and Pakistan's dependence on imported energy has deepened.
As the country confronts rising demand, dwindling reserves, and mounting foreign-exchange pressures, the urgency to rethink its exploration strategy has never been greater. Pakistan's E&P sector began with a strong momentum in the 1950s and 1960s, when early discoveries in Sui, Mari, and Badin laid the foundation for domestic gas supply. Through the 1980s and 1990s, companies such as OGDCL, PPL, and Mari Petroleum expanded exploration activity, adding fields in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that helped fuel industrial growth and household consumption.
However, the last 20 years tell a different story. While Pakistan has drilled hundreds of wells, the success ratio has remained modest, and the size of discoveries has steadily declined. Most recent finds have been small, marginal fields that do little to offset natural depletion in mature reservoirs.
Gas production has seen a multi-year decline and is now at about 3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) – well below estimated demand for 5 to 6 bcfd. Oil production has fallen from a peak of about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 to about 70,000 bpd today. Several factors explain this trend: 1.
Mature basins: Pakistan's traditional producing regions – particularly the Lower Indus Basin – have been heavily explored, leaving fewer large prospects. Limited deep exploration: Deep and ultra-deep wells, which hold higher potential, remain underexplored due to cost, risk, and technical constraints. Slow adoption of advanced technologies: Modern seismic imaging, reservoir modelling, and enhanced recovery techniques have not been deployed at the scale seen in other countries.
Regulatory and pricing constraints: Uncertain policies, slow approvals, and capped gas prices have discouraged aggressive exploration. Pakistan's inability to discover significant new reserves has forced the country to rely increasingly on imported LNG, petroleum products, and crude oil.
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