KARACHI: The Directorate General Petroleum Concessions (DGPC) has sought oil and gas production and sales data from exploration and production (E&P) companies to compile a database.
The DGPC has asked E&P companies to submit production and sales data in the prescribed format as part of the government’s ongoing initiative to digitise petroleum-sector workflows.In a letter to the Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association (PPEPCA), the Petroleum Division said production reporting by E&P companies was not being carried out in accordance with the prescribed DGPC template.
The letter said only a few companies had initially adopted the template for sharing the required information but had subsequently stopped providing data in the specified format.According to the Petroleum Division, the template is developed in consultation with the industry to capture technical and commercial parameters in a standardised manner. However, the required information is not being reported in the prescribed format and at the required frequency.
The DGPC said the template is an essential input for its digitisation project, which is expected to be completed by October. It convened a meeting with industry representatives on October 1, chaired by the director general petroleum concessions, to discuss the reporting template and seek industry input for its finalisation and implementation.
Sources said larger E&P companies are providing the data, while smaller companies are reluctant to do so because of tax and royalty-related issues.They said the database will help the Petroleum Division determine the actual exploration and production levels, as well as the country’s oil and gas reserves.
Earlier, PPEPCA urged the DGPC to adopt a practical approach to its requirement for historical production and sales data dating back to FY2000-01.In August, the association said E&P companies fully supported the digitisation initiative, but compiling, verifying and reconciling field-level data spanning more than 25 years is not practically feasible.
PPEPCA said many companies do not maintain operational records from such historical periods in readily retrievable digital formats. Changes in operators, ownership structures, field interests, reporting systems and archival practices over the years have also made reconstruction and reconciliation of historical data difficult.
The association pointed out that production and sales information has already been submitted to the DGPC through monthly, quarterly, annual and other regulatory reporting mechanisms. It therefore asked the DGPC to use and consolidate historical data already available in its records for migration into the proposed digital system, instead of requiring E&P companies to recreate the complete historical database.
