The News
Offshore oil reserves estimated at 40bn barrels
Naval chief says sediments of calcium, silicon, zinc, copper present in Pak waters,yet we extract nothing but common salt.
By our correspondent

KARACHI: Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Afzal Tahir said Wednesday that some estimates had indicated offshore reserves of up to 40 billion barrels of oil and over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in the maritime borders of Pakistan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"Realizing the importance of this resource, the government has been promoting offshore oil exploration," he said delivering the Second Annual Vice Admiral HMS Choudri Memorial Lecture on "Maritime Vision for the Next Decade and Pakistan's Place in it" at the auditorium of Pakistan Institute of Maritime Affairs.

So far these efforts have not proved successful and more needs to be done, he said and informed the audience that India was utilizing 30 percent of her fuel requirements from the Bombay High Oil Rigs.

He said a recent study has revealed that seafood resources alone can contribute $2 billion annually to the national economy. It is also believed that there are vast mineral and hydrocarbon resources in North Arabian Sea, he added.

It has been estimated that there is a standing stock of more than 2 million metric tonnes of fish resources in our waters. However, the total fish production in Pakistan is only 665,000 metric tonnes. "There is considerable scope of further developing our fisheries without depleting the existing resources," he said.

There is a strong possibility of finding zinc and copper rich sulphides, manganese and cobalt in our EEZ and deep sea water sediments have been found to contain abundant calcium and silicon. However, with the exception of common salt, no other minerals are being extracted from the sea at present.

He said that recognising the need to revitalise the shipbuilding industry, the government has decided to place Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW) under Ministry of Defence Production (MoDP). He said Pakistan Navy is making all endeavours to promote modernisation of KS&EW by including indigenous construction of surface ships and submarines in her development plans. Other stakeholders like PNSC, KPT and PQA also need to utilise this facility.

Pakistan can claim extension of its continental shelf (from 200 to 350 nautical iles) as permitted by UNCLOS provided it can prove by May 2009, through geophysical and seismic surveys that its landmass extends underwater up to that limit.

"Government is providing resources for the survey of our continental shelf so that we can claim extension of our EEZ by the due date," he said.

He said the requirement to meet strict International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standards in future would be a blow to the ageing Pakistani merchant fleet.

He said that in the last three decades Pakistan's merchant fleet strength declined from 74 ships in 1970 lifting around 27 percent of the cargo to 14 in 2005 with capacity to lift about 22 percent.

He said according to a UN report more than 100 merchant ships worldwide were owned by Pakistanis but these ships were registered in foreign countries. "We need to pursue acquisition of merchant ships by Pakistanis," he said.

The government has offered many incentives in the last few years to encourage greater investment in the shipping sector, he said and added that these measures have yet to bear fruit. He said there is a dire need to revitalise the shipping sector and to formulate a dynamic development programme.

He said the shortage of national flag carriers translated, in economic terms, to around $2 billion, which has to be spent as freight charges in foreign exchange to ensure smooth flow of trade through foreign shipping.

He said it was unfortunate that Pakistan flag vessels currently carry only about 45 percent of our liquid cargo and approximately 5 percent of dry cargo. "In case of war, emergency or sanctions, foreign flag carriers may refuse to carry our cargo or charge heavily, a situation we experienced in post 9/11 scenario," he said.

He said there was need to make concurrent efforts for the development of Karachi Port Complex to handle deep draught vessels and to enhance its cargo handling capabilities.

He said the mangroves in the Indus delta areas have been estimated as the fifth largest in the world, which act as natural fish and shrimp nurseries. However, our mangrove forests are presently being utilised only for its firewood, he said.

"We are not culturally a maritime nation and have historically maintained a continental focus. We have remained largely unable to effectively exploit our maritime potential," he said.

There is a distinct need to enhance awareness on maritime issues at national level, which can best be done by a research institute dedicated to creating awareness on major maritime issues in the country.

He said presently Pakistan was producing about 100 seafarers per year from our Marine Academy. The same needs to be increased. With the establishment of University of Engineering, Science and Technology at Marine Academy, it is hoped that more youngsters would join this profession.

the government has made offshore drilling a priority for this reason. Off the coast of Balochistan are huge mineral and hydro-carbon resources yet no government has had the political will to tap these resources.. How much foreign exchange could we have saved if we were extracting this oil and imagine how much money we would have made! it is still not too late. hopefully we will find this oil and gas so that we can benefit from what lies under our land and not waste any more money.

i think naval chief is looking for more money for its naval budget . You know we need to protect out assests and all that.

i think naval chief is looking for more money for its naval budget . You know we need to protect out assests and all that.

Saint .. although you are not off the mark but the Naval chief is talking the truth. We have no offshore rigs and for the first time it was the present GOP which managed to get TOTAL to do some offshore drilling .. however, they were not successful.

Unfortunately foreign companies are not coming in Pakistan to do offshore exploration and the govt. is not taking risk into ordering exploration.

I would insist on the govt. to take bold steps and invest .. of course they are afraid of corruption but still they must act .. look around us ... Qatar / Iran are pumping gas from offshore sites like crazy ... India & Bangladesh are doing not so bad ... why than Pakistan has no offshore oil rig !

Regarding fishing too we are slow ... since private sector is not shoring up the funds .. GOP should open a dept to get involved in fishing .. Maybe the dept could be J.V. between GOP & private sector ...

Furthermore, i do accept that it is the present GOP which has started going back to the times of early 70's (before the fiasco of Bangladesh) when Pakistani private shipping were known around the globe (Gokhal shipping etc. !)

.


must7,

Is this the same Shipping Company which had Abbas Gokul as "The Big Boss" and was involved with the BCCI ending up as a Guest of Her Majesty?

Peace

Yes, we need more ships under the Pak flag. I personally know some Pakistani owners who have ships under foreign flags.

We need to secure our trade and increase the number of ships carrying Pakistani flag. This is a must. This would negate the ability of foreign ship owners to charge us a fortune on transporting our goods through premiums and war surcharge.

must7,

Is this the same Shipping Company which had Abbas Gokul as "The Big Boss" and was involved with the BCCI ending up as a Guest of Her Majesty?

Peace

Ajgir .. yes we are talking about the same compant.

Well something similar happened to Galadari Sr too !

Having said that this company was not the only Pakistani company which use to be involved in shippings, however, since Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, Pakistan was very much interested in having shipping assets!

Unfortunately after 1971 and also the nationalizing policy of Z.A. Bhutto our sea transportings were managed by PNSC which became a White Elephant on the taxpayers funds !

our really biggest asset offshore is frozen methane! This is something which will become extremly valuable once oil resources of the earth are used up.

We have, and only some others, huge amounts of this near our shores.

Interesting. Now its not frozen in the sea, is it? you got some more info on it?

Please give us more information, this is interesting to know more about it. Thanks.