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Pakistan Petroleum Ltd., the nation’s biggest gas producer, plans to increase output from the Manzalai area at Tal in the North West Frontier Province more than six fold this year.

“Production facilities will be in place by November and we hope to increase output to 250 million cubic feet a day,” Chief Executive Officer Khalid Rahman said in an interview in Karachi today. Production at the field is currently 39 million cubic feet a day.

Increased output at Manzalai will help Pakistan Petroleum compensate for a decline in production from Pakistan’s biggest field, the Sui area in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Aging fields including Sui, which began in 1955 and is declining by as much as 5 percent a year, threaten to widen the nation’s gas deficit from 1 billion cubic feet a day, equivalent to 20 percent of total consumption.

“Security reasons, technical delays and international oil prices seem to be delaying the explorer’s plans,” said Faraz Farooq, research analyst at First Capital Equities Ltd. in Karachi. “It’s good news that production from Manzalai will meet the target by November.”

Pakistan Petroleum shares, which have more than doubled this year, rose 0.04 percent to 193.12 rupees at the 3:30 p.m. local time close on the Karachi Stock Exchange after rising as much as 1.9 percent earlier.

Pakistan Petroleum’s annual exploration spending of about $80 million has also missed the target, Rahman said today, without giving a reason.

“There were some small delays,” Rahman, 53, said at the venue of the company’s annual general meeting. “But we look forward to aggressive exploration.”

The company planned to increase production from Manzalai, which has reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic feet, to 250 million cubic feet a day by June, Rahman said in an interview in February. Spending on exploration was proposed to rise to $130 million a year from $60 million, he said at the time.

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