OGDCL Signs Landmark Agreement with PINSTECH to Explore Lithium and Critical Minerals from Oilfield Produced Water
ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has signed a strategic contract with the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) for the provision of advanced Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Element Profiling and Radioactive Element Profiling services.
The OGDCL Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Ahmed Hayat Lak, attended the formal signing ceremony along with senior managers of the OGDCL and the representatives from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and PINSTECH.
The key aspects of the agreement and technical profiling are highlighted.
Comprehensive Sample Analysis is a part of the agreement where under PINSTECH will carry out advanced ICP elemental and radioactive analysis of the produced water and brine from selected wells of OGDCL.
The testing program will estimate the amount of lithium, rare earth elements, precious metals and radioactive metals in over 2,000 individual samples collected from potential wells, targeting Critical Minerals.
Establishing a Geochemical Database: The exhaustive exercise aims to create a comprehensive geochemical database, to rank the wells according to their lithium and rare earth mineral content and to map zones of high to low concentrations. The data will serve as the backbone for assessing the commercial viability of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE).
Duo to the Challenge of Conventional Hydrocarbons: Diversification.
The company’s leadership emphasized that the expanded profiling effort is a paradigm shift that will shift produced water from a traditional industrial waste stream from oil and gas operations to a high-value source of critical minerals for the domestic industry.
The collaboration is part of OGDCL’s long-term corporate diversification plan that goes beyond traditional hydrocarbons to the exploitation of other energy resources and critical minerals. In particular, the first pilot study carried out by OGDCL at Wahid Bukhsh-01 well has been successful in the identification of geothermal brine with lithium concentration of 291mg/L, which is very similar to the main geothermal-lithium brines of the world.