On 29 May 2002, the Pakistan Government awarded the lease of the Zamzama gasfield for its development and production to a joint venture of BHP of Australia (38.5 per cent), Lasmo, a subsidiary of ENI Group of Italy (17.5 per cent), Premier-KUFPEC Pakistan, a joint venture company of Premier Oil of UK and KUFPEC of Kuwait (18.75 per cent) and Government Holding Pvt Ltd (25 per cent), for a period of 20 years.

The lease was signed by Pakistan’s Petroleum Secretary, Mr M Abdullah Yusuf, Director General Petroleum Concessions, Mr G A Sabri, Managing Director of Lasmo, Mr Mike Buck, General Manager of BHP, Mr Francis Egan, CEO of PKP, Mr Patrick Bird and CEO of GHPL, Mr Mansoor Zubair.

The lease covers an area of 536 sq kms in Dadu district and BHP is the operator of the field. The joint venture would undertake phased development of the Zamzama gasfield to supply 350 mmcfd of gas to SSGCL by October 2003, which would entail an investment of over US$ 100 million.

The gasfield is presently producing 70 mmcfd through extended well test. Under Phase-1 of the development programme, three additional wells would be drilled and two additional gas processing trains with a capacity of 140 mmcfd each would be constructed and integrated with the existing extended well test facility to provide a throughput capacity of 350 mmcfd.