Gas production drops to 3,828 mmcfd in Mar

KARACHI: Natural gas production dropped 5.8 percent to 3,828 million metric cubic feet/day (mmcfd) in March as compared to the same month a year earlier, a brokerage said on Monday.

“The decline can be attributed to annual turnaround at Uch-II plant and some turbine issues at Qadirpur gas fields,” Faizan Ahmed, an analyst at JS Global Capital said. Production from Uch field dropped to 288 mmcfd in March compared with 430 mmcfd recorded in February. Similarly, Qadirpur’s production levels also declined to 269 mmcfd in March from 301 mmcfd recorded in the previous month.

Production from Sui gas fields fell 9.4 percent year on year to 399 mmcfd, from Hala block down 19 percent to 53 mmcfd and production from Nashpa block decreased 23 percent to 81 mmcfd.

Natural gas output decreased 1.8 percent to 4,018 mmcfd during the January-March quarter as compared to the last year. In March, oil production stood at 91,231 barrels per day (bpd), up 0.4 percent from 90,913 bpd recorded in March 2017.

Oil production remained weak during the January-March quarter with overall average production clocking in at 92,329 bpd, down 1.7 percent. “Weak oil production during the period can be attributed to weak production from key fields, such as Nashpa, Mela and Makori,” Ahmed added. Sales of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) increased 25.7 percent year on year in March with monthly production of 2,226 tons/day owing to new finds.

Ahmed said most of the increase in LPG production could be attributed to increased flows from Kunnar Pashaki Deep (KPD) fields post completion of KPD phase-II where the project added an incremental 410 tons/day of LPG production to the stream, in addition to 4,000 bpd of oil and 125 mmcfd of natural gas.