In 2013, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)—an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy—published a detailed evaluation of global shale reserves.

The EIA report, titled “Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources: An Assessment of 137 Shale Formations in 41 Countries Outside the United States,” was prepared in partnership with Advanced Resources International (ARI). For Pakistan, it marked the most authoritative analysis of its largely untapped shale oil and gas reserves.

The EIA report zeroed in on shale resources within Pakistan’s Lower Indus Basin, particularly the Sembar Shale and Ranikot Formation. According to EIA estimates, Pakistan holds 227 billion barrels of in-place shale oil, of which 9.1 billion barrels are considered ‘Technically Recoverable Resources (TRR)’. In 2013, the EIA also estimated 586 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale gas in-place in the Lower Indus Basin of which 105 Tcf is ‘technically recoverable shale gas’.

Technically Recoverable Resources (TRR) refers to the volume of oil or gas that can be extracted using current technology, without considering the cost, market conditions, or regulatory constraints. In contrast,........

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