Karachi, Jun 22 (PTI): Pakistan's state-owned exploration firm has discovered a new reserve of oil and gas in Sindh province, officials said.

The state-owned Oil & Gas Development Company(OGDCL) made the discovery earlier this month in Kharo at its Faakir-1 wildcat well, Field Operations Officer Saleem Khan said on Saturday.

“The discovery was made after drilling to a depth of 4,185 metres, the well tested at 6.4 million cubic feet per day of gas and 55 barrels per day of condensate from the Lower Goru formation,” Khan added.

According to experts, the discovery shows that there is still untapped energy under Pakistani soil.

“It’s not a gusher by global standards, but it's a critical domestic win. It is a significant breakthrough and a step forward in tapping and finding new reservoir blocks," Khan said.

The ODCL since last year has made at least two significant discoveries. One in Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where it found gas and condensate reserves with initial production of 2.114 million cubic feet of gas and 74 barrels of crude oil per day.

In another discovery, it found substantial oil and gas reserves in Attock Punjab.

With Pakistan’s energy needs growing the OGDCL has been working with foreign private firms to conduct more explorations in the country, official said.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.

The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.

Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.

The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.

India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.

In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.

Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.

The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.

It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.

Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.

The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.

The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.

On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.