Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that there are possibilities of discovering a huge reserve of oil and gas in the country, media reports said on Thursday.
Dawn newspaper quoted the Pakistan premier as saying, “Just pray that our hopes and expectations from the offshore drilling being carried out by the ExxonMobil-led consortium prove to be true.”
Pak premier has said that there’s a strong possibility that they might discover a very big reserve in their waters.
“There’s already been a delay of about three weeks, but if the indications we are getting from the companies are anything to go by, there’s a strong possibility that we may discover a very big reserve in our waters. And if that happens, Pakistan will altogether be in a different league,” the newspaper quoted Khan as having said.
However, the report said that there has been no official word from ExxonMobil and the international oil exploration company ENI which have been involved since January in drilling an ultra-deep well (230km inside the sea) for oil in what is known as Kekra-1 area.
Reportedly, the ExxonMobil has returned to Pakistan nearly after a decade after surveys were carried out last year suggesting the possibility of big oil reserves within the Pakistani waters.
The report quoted PM Khan as saying, “If big oil reserves are discovered, most of Pakistan’s economic problems will be addressed and then there will be no stopping the country’s progress.”