Media reports, quoting US Energy Information Administration (EIA), say that Pakistan has untapped shale gas reserves of about 105 trillion cubic feet (TCF) and over nine billion barrels of oil. Pakistan currently produces about 4.2 billion cubic feet of gas and about 70,000 barrels of oil a day. The estimates by EIA are greater than Pakistan's proved hydrocarbon reserves of 24 TCF for gas and about 300 million barrels of oil, the media reports said.
Technically recoverable shale gas is estimated at 201 TCF, with 96 TCF in India and 105 TCF in Pakistan. According to EIA's June 2013 estimates, based on surveys conducted by Advanced Resources International (ARI), a total of 1,170 TCF of 'risked' shale gas are estimated for the India-Pakistan region, including 584 TCF in India and 586 TCF in Pakistan.
For the two countries, the recoverable shale oil resources is estimated at 12.9 billion barrels, including 3.8 billion barrels for India and 9.1 billion barrels for Pakistan. The southern and central Indus basins are located in Pakistan, along the border with India and Afghanistan. They are bounded by the Indian shield on the east and highly folded and thrust mountains on the west, the media reports said.