ISLAMABAD: Residents of Sector H/13 neighborhood were left pleasantly surprised after finding oil reserves during the groundwater bore drilling process in the country’s federal capital.
Local news channels, which are currently flooded with fake and unconfirmed news, owing to the crazy TRPs indicated that crude oil reserves have been found after which dozens of residents in adjourning neighborhoods started drilling to rake in the dough.
Suction equipments were mounted to pump out ‘oil’ after which the local administration took action and sealed the area. Officials claimed that the petroleum product was found at the depth of 450 feet as the locals bored around 15 spots. Two of the persons involved in drilling were also arrested on the spot.
#BREAKING
In a shocking development, locals in #Islamabad’s Sector H-13 reportedly discovered oil beneath their houses while a water bore was being drilled in a house.#Pakistan pic.twitter.com/i02dJGugfu— Muhammad Waqas Khan (@AllahuAkbarr313) July 17, 2021
“At the moment we have sealed over a dozen such pumps. Locals were selling the oil to brick kilns. OGRA with Assistant Commissioner Islamabad are investigating the issue”, DC Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat wrote on his official handle.
At the moment we have sealed over a dozen such pumps. Locals were selling the oil to brick kilns. OGRA with AC @Abdullah_kahn is investigating the issue https://t.co/NwrStSbctT
— Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat (@hamzashafqaat) July 15, 2021
Shafqaat while speaking about the development further added ‘all temporary petrol selling points have been sealed while an administrative team led by AC Pothohar Abdullah Khan recovered around 2,500-liter of drums while section 144 have been imposed in a bid to stop all activities.
DC also added that this is not the first event of its own kind in the locality as some of the persons were involved in similar kinds of activities around two and a half months ago. Some residents were also reportedly filling drums here, but the administration later filled the spots with sand, he added.
Later, Pakistan Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, which took the samples for testing, debunked the news stating that no oil reserves are located in the area while the petroleum product coming out of the ground is not crude oil but a mixture of diesel which got leaked from some adjacent vicinity. Reports quoting officials said ‘the smell of liquid is similar to kerosene or diesel.
Meanwhile, the Hydrocarbon Development Institute is investigating the matter for in-depth analysis and further proceedings are underway.
(Editor’s Note: The phrase ‘Fake News’ is not a scientific term. If facts of information are inaccurate it cannot be called news in the first place. It would be categorized as misinformation or disinformation. othernews.pk has opted to use this phrase as the mass searches and prefers the term ‘Fake News.’)
He is a Pakistani journalist, documentary producer and teaches journalism at various universities in Lahore. He is a silver medalist in MPhil Mass communication and has reported and edited for a number of English print media organizations in Pakistan.
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