Drooling Oil

The Pajero off-road jeep bumped and punted on round stones spread in that sepia-tinted terrain thrusting us up in midair when our heads were inches away from hitting the ceiling. Ikram and I exchanged looks. He looked at me with a rather raised eyebrow and we immediately strapped our seat belts on. “The rig is just a few kilometers away,” announced Haider Bux, the driver. He had been heralding about the ETA to our destination with the same catch phrase just a few kilometers away for the past an hour or so. I doubted his every claim now! The steering wheel was swiveling in his hands as he would pilot the vehicle efficiently every time when I was certain that seconds later we would be plummeting down a precipitous gorge. It appeared as if Haider Bux were playing a high graphics computer game of a roller coaster ride in a 3-D mode.

The constant revving of the engine made it difficult for us to talk. A silver-gray Toyota off-road double cabin truck was out-riding us, spewing the dust by kilos through its tyres. A death defying turn and the jeep braked to a halt, surrounded by a nimbus of brown dust stirred by its own tyres. Down, on my left was a sight to behold. Beyond the road yet snaking through the mountain and bone dry gorges stood an empowering turret shining in the morning sun with small ivy-white and money-green caravan cabins surrounding it.

Welcome to Shahdani Oil Rig.

A hiatus of about two years and the rugged sierras of Suleiman Ranges invite me for an inspection. As it happened, the Political Assistant Dera Ghazi Khan, Ikramullah Khan – a close friend, invited me to accompany him to an oil extraction site deep in the pit of Suleiman Ranges at a small hamlet called Shahdani. What else could be more compelling during the idly spent days of Ramazan? I gave him a complete go.

We set out right after sehri and after journeying for four consecutive hours without stopping, we were approaching the Shahdani Oil Rig, at a distance of about 160 km west of Dera Ghazi Khan; bearings: 30˚N - 70˚E; at an elevation of 1590 meters above sea level.

We first headed straight for the BMP (Border Military Police) check post where a phalanx of BMP men were standing alert for receiving their Commandant Ikramullah Khan. A bevy of Baloach tribesmen were also present there. After greeting and embracing every one of them, we were being seated and Ikram started listening to their problems one by one, giving orders and solving what he could right at the spot. After listening to their problems and receiving their applications, Ikram beckoned to me and we started walking down to the magnificent derrick that encompassed the rig.

As we approached, the door to a caravan cabin opened and out came Mian Naik Namdar, the Operational Manager for the million dollar project. He greeted us and led us to an inner cluster of cabins huddled together. One of the cabins door bore his name on it and he led us into an inner sanctum. Minutes later we were accompanied by a couple of his colleagues who met us with genuine warmth. After discussing few trivial matters with him, Mian Namdar ushered us to the derrick while explaining its mode of functioning to us.

“There are four 600 kilowatts generators here to supply power to the plant. They produce an amount of electricity sufficient enough for a city like Multan.” He said in a confident voice as we walked into the compound of the rig that was reverberating with the deafening noise of the generators. “The cable that is being used for drilling weighs 115 tonnes,” he pointed to the top of the tower where a steel cable was functioning along with boring pipes, “We have reached the depth of 2500 m already, and the target we’ve been zeroing in is somewhere around 4500 m below.” Ikram and I were spellbound.

“What are those pipes for?” I asked.

“We use them for air-drilling.” Mian Namdar replied. The confused look on our faces told him more about our ignorance than we could hide so he explained it to us as if we were five-year-olds. “Each one of these pipes is 30 m long. These are called drill strings. There are fifty-one of these. Right now there are 27 pipes outside and the rest are boring underground.” He then pointed to a rather strange contraption where three toothed rotaries were assembled together. “This is what we use for air drilling – a drill bit. We put in a pressure of around 3000 to 4000 lbs in a 20 inch hole. Compare that with the pressure that you use filling in the tyres of your car – 22 to 24 lbs. With that immense pressure exerted and the rotary blades cutting, a lot of fluff is mucked out every minute.” He said pointing to a precipice that was darkened with the oozing muck from the rig. The impressive and inquisitive look on our faces made him go ahead. “This reservoir, if we ever find it,” he grinned, “is in a 50 km circle – big enough.” He stressed.

Oil is formed under Earth’s surface by the decomposition of marine organisms. The remains of tiny organisms that live in the sea - and, to a lesser extent, those of land organisms that are carried down to the sea in rivers and of plants that grow on the ocean bottoms - are enmeshed with the fine sands and silts that settle to the bottom in quiet sea basins. Such deposits, which are rich in organic materials, become the source rocks for the generation of crude oil. The process began many millions of years ago with the development of abundant life, and it continues to this day. Once the crude oil forms, it flows upward in Earth’s crust because it has a lower density than the brines that saturate the interstices of the shale, sands, and carbonate rocks that constitute the crust of Earth. The crude oil and natural gas rise into the microscopic pores of the coarser sediments lying above.

In order to determine the structure of underground rock layers a large vibroseis truck thumps the ground with a large base-plate between its wheels. The thumps send out seismic vibrations, or shear-waves, at a known frequency. A network of seismometers called geophones records the arrival time of the shear-waves. In order to find crude oil underground, geologists must search for a sedimentary basin in which shale rich in organic material have been buried for a sufficiently long time for crude oil to have formed.

The rotary drilling rig uses a series of rotating pipes, called the drill string, to tap into oil reservoirs. The drill string is supported by a derrick, and turned by the rotary table on its floor. Circulating, mud-like fluid driven by a pump removes cuttings as the teeth of the drill bit dig into the rock around the reservoir. Reservoirs occur in many places. They form as a result of intense pressure on top of layers of dead marine and land organisms mixed with sand or silt. This reservoir abuts a salt dome, which has trapped a layer of oil and natural gas between itself and nonporous rock. Because they have no place to expand, the gas and crude oil are under high pressure and will tend to rush explosively out the channel opened by the drill rig.


There was a crew of 185 men at the Shahdani Oil Rig. Thirty-three of them were officer engineers and geologists and the rest were the labouring staff. The project was initiated in June 2003 and they had been given a target of 270 days to drill oil out. Mian Nmadar and his team had already spent 180 days successfully.

“While drilling for oil, there is a success ratio of 10 to 1; right now in Pakistan we have a success ratio of 10 to 4 – quite lucrative.” Mian Namdar concluded with a lopsided smile. “The oil derricks at Dhodhak and Ali Pur have been producing an output of Rs. 40 million and Rs. 15 million a day respectively. If we compare this would be site to those, this one is a huge gunner.” He winked.

“Now we understand about the wealth of the Arabs,” Ikram scratched his brow as I just nodded and pouted. We were then led to a secluded caravan cabin at the western side of the derrick.

“This is our computer room,” said Mian Namdar while escorting us inside. In the computer room there were several monitors switched on and different coloured blobs were blipping on them. There we were greeted by one Mr. Anees Ashraf, the geologist for the project. He was a very congenial gentleman whose every phrase ended with a warm smile. He showed us various samples of earth under a microscope and told us about the readings he took.

“We are around the clock online with Islamabad. Whatever we have here on these screens is on the screens in Islamabad. We are directly connected to our head office through satellite.” He then briefed us with the geological surveys done for the expected yield of oil and the history of OGDC. “Pakistan is a modest oil producer but a more significant gas producer with potential for growth and potentially more reserves to be discovered.

“The country has a long history of oil and gas exploration (first well drilled in 1857 and first commercial discovery made in 1914). The first gas field Sui was discovered in 1952 and provided the basis for Pakistan’s extensive gas network. Oil and natural gas each account for about 40% of Pakistan’s commercial energy supplies but currently form only a small part of the country’s economy. Pakistan is a net importer of crude oil (producing less than 20% of its consumption) and refined products. The country is self-sufficient in natural gas although this is likely to change with a predicted increase in demand.

“The state-owned Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) has been by far the major player in the oil industry. Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) was established in 1950 and produces the majority of the natural gas.”

It did not take a rocket scientist to tell how impressed we were. We took several pictures of the oil rig, and as the day wore off we planned for moving back. We thanked Mian Namdar and his team for their hospitality and their incredible job. The journey back to Dera Ghazi Khan was uneventful.