Islamabad: The fate of Pakistan, which is struggling with inflation and economic crisis, can change. A large reserve of petroleum and natural gas (Oil, gas reserves found in Pakistan) has been found in Pakistan's maritime border. This reserve is so large that its exploitation can change the fate of the country.

The three-year survey was carried out in cooperation with a friendly country to verify the presence of oil and gas reserves, Dawn News TV quoted a senior security official as saying on Friday.

It may take many years to extract the oil

Pakistan identified the location of the reserves through a geographical survey. The concerned departments have informed the government about the discovery of petroleum and natural gas reserves. However, officials have informed that digging wells and actually extracting oil may take several years.

When the official was asked if these reserves are sufficient to meet the country's energy needs, he said, "It depends on the size of production and recovery rate. If it is gas reserves, it can replace LNG imports and if it is oil reserves, we can replace imported oil."

US$5 billion investment needed to extract oil

However, he cautioned that this was "wishful thinking" until the prospects of the reserves were analysed and drilling began. He pointed out that exploration alone required a massive investment of about US$5 billion and it could take four to five years to extract reserves from an offshore location.

He said if the exploration results in the discovery of reserves, further investments would be needed to prepare the wells and infrastructure to extract the reserves and produce the fuel, Dawn reported.