2/9/2018 History of Energy in Pakistan – Time line - DAWN.

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History of Energy in Pakistan – Time line

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1952: The first oil field in Pakistan was discovered in the province of Balochistan near a Sui gas
field.

During the same time period, Sui gas field, which remains the biggest natural gas field in
Pakistan, was discovered.

1955: Commercial drilling and exploring of Sui gas fields was started. Sui gas field contributes

‹ substantially to fulfil Pakistan’s fuel requirements and have a daily production of approximately
550 MMscf. http://www.ppl.com.pk/content/sui-gas-field-overview
›
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) discovered gas reserves at Uch gas field.

1964: The Toot Oilfields, located in the Potwar region of Punjab were found. During Ayub
Khan’s regime Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields explored and drilled the first well.

Toot Oilfields have an approximate capacity to produce 60 million barrels of oil.

1967: The commercial production from Toot Oilfields started in 1967.

1976: Dhodak gas field was discovered in the province of Punjab.

1981: Union Texas Pakistan discovered an oil field in lower Sindh.

1983: Dakni gas field, located about 135 Kms in the south-west of Islamabad, was discovered in
1983.

1984: Tando Adam oil field, located in Hyderabad, was drilled and completed.

1986: The year witnessed the peak in oil production from Toot Oilfields which was 2,400
barrels per day.

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2/9/2018 History of Energy in Pakistan – Time line - DAWN.COM

Moreover, Chak Naurang field located 90 kms away from Islamabad was discovered in the June
of 1986.

1989: Dakni gas field started commercial production in December 1989.

1990: Qadirpur gas field was discovered in the province of Sindh. It remains the third largest
gas field in Pakistan.

1994: Rajjan oil field, located in Gujjar Khan, was discovered.

1998-1999: The oil fields owned by Union Texas Pakistan were producing more oil than the
Potwar wells.

2000: Balochistan Liberation Army allegedly bombed one of the minor pipelines transmitting
gas from Sui gas fields.

2004: Chanda oil fields located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa started oil production.

2005: International Sovereign Energy, a Canadian company, signed an MoU with Oil and Gas
Development Company Limited. The memorandum entailed further development of Toot Oil
Fields.

Pakistan was hit by one of its most devastating earthquakes which resulted in a vast damage to
the infrastructural capital responsible for transmitting/transferring fuel.

In the December of 2005, Karachi electric Supply Company, one of the largest vertically
integrated power supply company in Pakistan was privatised.

2006: Mela oil fields were discovered in the area of Kohat located in the province of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa.

2007: Pakistan faced one of its biggest power failures after Bhutto’s assassination in which
production fell by 6,000 MW.

2008: The demand and supply gap pertaining to electricity in Pakistan increased by 15 per cent
http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=864

The major load shedding crisis also commenced in the same year with power outages extending
up to 16 hours a day in many cities of the country.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2010/10/power-tariff-doubled-in-3-years-outages-continue/

2009: NASHPA oil fields were discovered in Karak district of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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2/9/2018 History of Energy in Pakistan – Time line - DAWN.COM

In the same year, Karachi faced one of its most crucial power breakdowns on June 17 in which
the entire city was without power for 21 hours and more.

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/2009/06/23/feature-02

Moreover, the country faced a power shortfall of 4,500 MW in the same year with the domestic
demand rising up to 11,000 MW. However only 6,500 MW of generated power was catering to
the entire demand.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=200914\story_4-1-2009_pg3_1

2010: Sheikhan gas field, which is located in Kohat, Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, was discovered.

Moreover, the torrential rainfall in the year resulted in floods which caused much damage to the
existing infrastructure transmitting/transferring energy and fuel.

Towards the end of the year, country’s first rental power plant (RPP), with the capacity of 232
MW was inaugurated in Karachi.

http://www.brecorder.com/top-stories/single/595/0/1125661/

2011: The year started with the shut down of Uch power plant producing 585MW of electricity,
as one of the pipelines providing fuel was blown up in the district of Jaffarabad.

https://www.dawn.com/2011/02/24/gas-pipeline-blast-shuts-power-plant.html

Pakistan faced one of its most crucial gas crises, with the shortfall rising up to 1.8 billion cubic
feet (bcf) http://tribune.com.pk/story/318266/gas-crisis-will-be-brought-under-control-in-six-
months/

The year also experienced the worst CNG load shedding resulting in losses and problems for the
consumers. However OGRA increased the gas tariff by 14 per cent in the beginning of the year
which was one of the biggest tariff hikes in the history of Pakistan.

http://www.brecorder.com/fuel-a-energy/single/630/193/1266469/

Moreover, the energy shortfall reached up to 2,700 MW.

https://www.dawn.com/2011/04/19/energy-shortfall-reaches-2700-megawatts.html

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