Oil was reportedly discovered after drilling a water bore in Islamabad’s Sector H/13 neighborhood.
As word got out in a flurry of text messages and phone calls, dozens of locals rushed to the scene and started drilling holes for the ‘oil’. Some went a little overboard with their extraction projects and installed suction pumps ‘to pump out the oil’, according to a report.
They began selling it before the area was sealed by the local administration.
At the moment we have sealed over a dozen such pumps. Locals were selling the oil to brick kilns. OGRA with AC @Abdullah_kahn is investigating the issue https://t.co/NwrStSbctT
— Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat (@hamzashafqaat) July 15, 2021
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat, responding to reports, tweeted, “At the moment we have sealed over a dozen such pumps.”
He further mentioned that samples had been sent to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, adding that investigation is underway.
“Local were selling oil to brick kilns,” he said, adding the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) was investigating the issue with Assistant Commissioner Abdullah Khan.
Read more: Can Pakistan benefit from historic drop in oil price?
It is imperative to mention that the administration has imposed Section 144 on boring in the federal capital
The authorities also took into possession the oil boring machine.
However it seems like our neitizens are enjoying the news in full swing as they seem delighted by the news of a random oil discovery, that too in the neighbourhood.
https://twitter.com/slamwinder/status/1416105356347035648?s=21
Koi oil ki line na cut di ho inhu ny. kia crude oil ko aisy hi istmal kr skty han 🤔
— umar shahzad (@umar_sherazus) July 16, 2021
LoL Why were spending millions of dollars of foreign oil drilling companies when Boring machine can do this for us😜
— ExPaki (@sam_01992) July 16, 2021
😂😂 Gud one
— RiZz RizZ (@rizwanrizz10) July 16, 2021
Exxon Mobil Corp’s discovery
This year, Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) made its 19th discovery offshore Guyana at the Uaru-2 well in the Stabroek Block, as the U.S. energy firm continues to develop one of the world’s most important new oil and gas blocks in the last decade.
The company, however, did not specify how much the new find would add to the previous gross discovered recoverable resource estimate of more than 9 billion barrels of oil and gas.
Exxon operates the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block as part of a consortium that includes Hess Corp (HES.N) and China’s CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK) and began production in 2019.
Read more: Government asked to prioritize auctioning offshore oil blocks
The latest find continues the consortium’s long string of discoveries in Latin America’s newest crude producing nation and underscores the importance of Guyana to Exxon for increasing its future oil output.
In January last year, Exxon had said that Uaru-1 was the 16th discovery in the Stabroek Block.