Lasmo Oil Pakistan Limited

completed

The project involves the drilling of up to an additional eight producing wells (four current exploration/appraisal wells will be converted to producers) and the construction of a 24 km gathering pipeline system and a gas processing plant. All of the produced Bhit gas from the project will be sold at the plant boundary to Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), a government-owned gas transmission and distribution company. A 42 km spur pipeline to be constructed by SSGC will transport the Bhit gas from the processing plant to SSGC’s main trunk line. SSGC will sell the gas to end-users in the Karachi region.IFC has several major roles to play in this project: (i) IFC would provide long-term financing, which is not readily available in the country for a domestic gas project; (ii) By supporting this anchor project, IFC would provide assistance to the further development of Pakistan’s gas infrastructure, supporting a form of energy that is more environmentally friendly, more efficient and cost-effective than the alternatives; (iii) IFC’s financing would enable LOPL to leverage its investment in the project thus facilitating the company’s efforts to pursue other opportunities in the country; and (iv) IFC’s financing would support the Government’s initiative to maximise gas use in order to meet increasing demand and generate savings in foreign exchange.The project has a number of important development impacts: (i) It will assist with the optimisation of Pakistan’s energy potential because it will develop Pakistan''s gas reserves in order to help satisfy the country’s net demand for energy; (ii) The project will help reduce the country’s dependency on imported fuel oil; (iii) The government will benefit from about US$394 million in royalties, taxes and other revenues which represent about 23% of the total project revenues; and (iv) The implementation of the project will provide employment of about 1,500 people during construction and about 200 people during operation.