Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) has started the process of leaving Pakistan’s oil and gas sector by selling its major assets to Pakistan Exploration (Private) Limited (PEL) for about $60 million, according to a senior Ministry of Energy official who spoke to media.
“The foreign E&P companies are increasingly disheartened, primarily due to the massive circular debt in the gas sector, which has reached Rs2,700 billion,” the source told the publication.
“Of this, Rs1,500 billion, including $600 million owed to local and foreign Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, remains unpaid due to defaults by the gas companies. The 12-month delay in approving amendments to the 2012 E&P policy also contributed to KUFPEC’s decision,” the source said.
As per the official, KUFPEC has made the decision to recover its investments by selling its concessions and assets in different blocks around Pakistan in order to reinvest in other countries.
In April 1981, KUFPEC was founded as a division of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). The company’s primary focus is on finding, developing, and extracting natural gas and crude oil outside of Kuwait. It has operations in ten nations on five continents — Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and Australia.
