KARACHI: Caretaker Federal Minister Abdu­llah Hussain Haroon on Tuesday issued a statement regarding a news item published in Dawn under the headline “Major oil find near Pak-Iran border” that had quoted the minister as saying that ExxonMobil was “close to hitting huge oil reserves near the Pak-Iran border.”

In his statement clarifying the news report, the minister said that “ExxonMobil has purchased a block of Pakistani deep sea drilling off the Indus Delta for exploration. Their drilling is yet to start as depths are very intense, but they are very hopeful of success in discovering a big cache of oil.”

“While the situation is not only good news and hopefully rewarding to Pakistan, anything further should not be added and may not be construed by my talk at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry,” it added.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2018