OGDC Turns to US Energy Giant Baker Hughes to Squeeze More Oil, Gas From Ageing Fields

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's largest oil and gas producer is betting on American technology to breathe new life into decades-old wells that may still have plenty left to give.

Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) signed a contract with Baker Hughes on Monday to deploy the American firm's Mature Assets Solutions (MAS) across OGDC's ageing fields, targeting higher production from ageing wells already experiencing natural decline. The signing ceremony took place at OGDC's headquarters, with Special Secretary Petroleum Mirza Nasiruddin Mashood Ahmad and US Chargé d'Affaires Natalie A. Baker attending as chief guests.

MD/CEO Ahmed Hayat Lak led OGDC's side of the ceremony alongside senior leadership from both companies. Under the agreement, Baker Hughes brings its technical expertise, advanced technologies and integrated capabilities to identify fresh production opportunities and tackle operational challenges across OGDC's mature assets a partnership that slots directly into OGDC's wider Production Optimisation Drive.

OGDC Baker Hughes Partnership

OGDC operates 18 major mature assets 12 oil fields and six gas or condensate fields and currently pumps over 40,000 barrels of crude oil daily, alongside 815 million standard cubic feet of natural gas, 780 metric tonnes of LPG, and 80 metric tonnes of sulphur every day. Squeezing additional output from fields already this productive, rather than waiting on new discoveries, offers Pakistan a potentially quicker route to boosting domestic supply.

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Baker Hughes isn't new to this exact playbook. The Houston-based firm has built Mature Assets Solutions into a core strategy for reviving brownfield production worldwide, and has separately extended multi-year stimulation-vessel work with Petrobras off Brazil's coast to support mature-field production. Bringing that global experience to Pakistan gives OGDC access to a firm with a track record on ageing fields elsewhere in the world.

Energy Security Push

Lak framed the deal as part of a deliberate push to work with world-class service providers, telling attendees the partnership would optimise production and strengthen Pakistan's energy security. Special Secretary Petroleum Ahmad echoed that framing, tying the collaboration directly to Pakistan's drive to maximise indigenous oil and gas output.

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Chargé d'Affaires Baker called the agreement a milestone in the US-Pakistan energy relationship, describing energy as foundational to economic security and pointing to the OGDC-Baker Hughes tie-up as evidence of a shared goal. Baker Hughes's Global Director for Mature Asset Solutions, Tarik Abdelfatah, added that the collaboration reflects mutual objectives and opens the door to testing new technology applications inside Pakistan.

None of this happens in isolation from Pakistan's larger energy math. The country continues importing significant volumes of oil and gas to meet demand. Every additional barrel or cubic foot produced domestically can potentially reduce Pakistan's need for imported energy. Optimising existing fields can also offer a faster and potentially more capital-efficient route to incremental production than developing entirely new discoveries, making this exactly the kind of deal Islamabad wants more of as it hunts for ways to shore up energy security without waiting years for new exploration to pay off.

Whether Baker Hughes can actually slow decline and unlock meaningful additional production across OGDC's 18 mature assets remains the billion-rupee question. The answer will come not from Monday's signing ceremony, but from what these ageing fields produce in the months and years ahead.