Recently, an inconspicuous but significant news has quietly landed in the oil industry. China Antong Oilfield Services Group and Pakistan Shahin Energy Private Limited officially sat at a table and signed a memorandum of understanding. According to both parties' statements, the size of this cooperation in the next three to five years is approximately 20 billion Pakistani rupees, equivalent to about 480 million yuan, with a focus on Pakistan's natural gas and upstream energy sectors. Money is not an astronomical number, but the signal meaning is more worth pondering than the amount itself.

Open the policy window for gas sales

Those familiar with the energy market in Pakistan know that the country's natural gas has long been the old path of state procurement and sales. The pipeline gas produced by exploration and mining companies can only be sold to state-owned pipeline networks at guided prices, with no increase in price or enthusiasm. The turning point lies in the policy aspect: Pakistan revised its 2012 oil exploration and production policy, explicitly allowing oil and gas exploration and production companies to sell up to 35% of pipeline compliant natural gas to licensed third-party buyers through competitive procedures. As soon as this door was opened, the gas that was originally locked in the pot and could not sell at a high price became available for the first time as a direct channel to connect with industrial users. Anton and Shaxin's cooperation is precisely stepping on this policy window.

Sha Xin holds the key factory in her hands

According to the scope outlined in the memorandum, both parties will work together to screen a batch of truly accounted for projects, with a wide range of tentacles: third-party natural gas sales, upstream gas reservoir development, oilfield expansion, old well production increase, natural gas processing, and supporting energy infrastructure. The division of labor is also very clear. Shahin Energy provides local operation and processing capabilities, while Antong provides international oilfield technology and upstream development expertise. Shahin is not an unknown company in Pakistan, but a leading player in the utilization of liquefied petroleum gas, industrial gas, and vent gas. It holds a key asset in its hands: a natural gas processing plant located in the Xinqiaoluo oilfield, with a designed daily processing capacity of 10 million standard cubic feet, approximately 283000 cubic meters. The most noteworthy aspect of this factory is the use of membrane separation technology to treat low-pressure permeate gas, remove carbon dioxide, and improve its quality to meet pipeline gas standards. At present, the actual daily processing capacity remains stable between 8 million and 10 million standard cubic feet. Keywords: the Belt and Road news network, oil cooperation, enterprise industry

Anton replicated the overseas strategy

Anton's trump card is also not weak. As an oilfield service group listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Anton's business has expanded to more than 30 countries and regions around the world, covering a relatively complete technical service chain from drilling and completion, reservoir engineering to old well production increase, oil fields, and energy resource commercialization. In the past two years, it has been making continuous moves overseas: Iraq has obtained the qualification for crude oil sales, Malaysia's Sarawak has made its first natural gas utilization business order, Algeria has obtained the qualification of national hydrocarbon agency operator, and Pakistan's new entry is actually another replication of its combination of technical services and gas storage commercialization to the South Asian market. According to Pakistani media reports, the focus of this round of cooperation will be on how to revitalize resources such as stagnant gas and low-pressure gas that were previously put on hold due to lack of economy through technological means; How natural gas flows from wells to buyers and becomes cash flow; How can old oil fields rely on process transformation to squeeze production again. To put it simply, it's not about grabbing the new exploration cake from large oil fields, but rather focusing on those peripheral resources that were previously overlooked but can now be picked up to make money.Editor/Gao Xue