Three day International Conference on, “Conventional and Unconventional Hydrocarbon Potential of Pakistan” concluded at Bara Gali Summer Campus University of Peshawar. The Conference was jointly organized by Department of Geology UoP and Pakistan Association of Petroleum Geoscientists (PAPG) and was participated by scientists from Pakistan, Hungry, Australia and Egypt.
Forty six Abstracts were received for the conference and their special abstract volume was published. Almost all the companies working in the Oil and Gas sector participated in the conference. They provided financial assistance and shared their scientific research. Opportunity was also provided to Students and faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Petroleum Engineering from different universities including Bahria University, Karakoram University, Bacha Khan University, Punjab University, Jamshoro University, University of Balochistan, University of Azad Kashmir, University of Sargodha, Comsats institute of Earth Sciences, Federal Urdu University, UET Punjab and University of Karachi.
Vice Chancellor University of Peshawar Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan inaugurated the three day event. In his opening remarks, he emphasized upon on the role of Geology for the uplift of the energy and financial crisis of the country. He also appreciated the efforts of the organizing team and termed the event as a rare happening, where the expertise of professionals from the industry is mixed with the scientific research of the academia to improve the hydrocarbon exploration activity. This will define new strategies to increase the overall hydrocarbon production rate in Pakistan, he said.
Chairman Dept. of Geology, University of Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Sajjad Ahmad in his speech pumped the sense of urgency amongst the academia and the industry professionals to look for the unconventional hydrocarbon resources of Pakistan and called it the need of the day.
Deputy Manager Pakistan Petroleum ltd. (PPL) appreciated the efforts of Department of Geology, University of Peshawar and called it as the best institute of geology in Pakistan based on his experience of dealing with employee graduates from this department. He also appreciated the efforts of Prof. Dr. Sajjad Ahmad for working as a bridge between the oil industry and the academia.
The Conference was closed on a special meeting between the academia and the industry professionals in the light of all the research shared in the conference. The meeting was aimed to formulate the way forward to look for the unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Based on the available data it was agreed that our country has the immense potential of the unconventional resources and all it needs is to put efforts in exactly evaluating those resources so that the oil industry is attracted towards launching projects of exploring them.
The conference also proved helpful for students as Schlumberger (Oil Company) agreed to give free licenses to Department of Geology, University of Peshawar for academic purposes. Training, Internship and job opportunities were also created for the students of Department of Geology, University of Peshawar. Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) agreed to Publish a special volume papers covering the conference Pproceedings.
