A mighty mix
Sadruddin Hashwani, chairman and founder of the Hashoo Group, explains to Gay Sutton how Orient Petroleum International Inc is helping to create energy independence for Pakistan, and how he plans to continue expanding the company around the globe.
 
Sadruddin HashwaniÔÇÖs road to success is a remarkable story. A self made man, he is one of PakistanÔÇÖs top ten richest men, and has built the Hashoo Group from its launch in 1960 to one of the most widely diversified and successful businesses in the country. His family has a long history in the business world. But at school he was distracted by sport, playing cricket seven days a week. ÔÇ£My mother wanted me to be a doctor but to her disappointment I didnÔÇÖt focus on studies. I dropped out from college,ÔÇØ Hashwani said. ÔÇ£But I didnÔÇÖt want to be a burden on my parents, so I had to struggle with my life.ÔÇØ
He began as a salesman, and moved through a series of jobs before setting up as a cotton exporter in 1965. ÔÇ£By 1969 I was the largest exporter of cotton in Pakistan, and known as the King of Cotton,ÔÇØ he explained. The secrets of his success were simple. ÔÇ£Basically, it was honesty. I fulfilled all my commitments, had a low cost operation and a high turnover which made me more competitive than the others.ÔÇØ
His reputation went before him and he soon entered the rice, barley and maize export trades, attracting clients because of his reliability and honesty. But that trade came to an abrupt halt when rice and cotton exports were nationalised. Undaunted, he turned his attention to the hotel trade, buying two hotels in Karachi and Islamabad.
Meanwhile, he set up a cement factory, and a pharmaceuticals company in Karachi manufacturing gelatine capsules. But it is the hotel industry that has become the main focus of his attention. He took over four Intercontinental hotels, renaming them Pearl Continental Hotels, and he constructed others in major cities. He also achieved a great coup, obtaining the franchise to run his Karachi and Islamabad hotels as Marriott franchises, something the Marriott chain had never permitted before.
The company rapidly diversified. He acquired a ceramics business, and built a new manufacturing facility which now produces high quality high volume ceramics both commercially and for his own hotels business. Previously he had hotel and real estate investment in North America, and has added trading divisions and an IT division to the company. 
There is, however, an ethos of social responsibility that runs deeply throughout the Hashoo Group, based on HashwaniÔÇÖs belief that he should care for his staff and use his wealth to help the underprivileged in his own country. ÔÇ£Every human being has a responsibility to look after the underprivileged,ÔÇØ he insisted. Each division of the company runs its own corporate social responsibility program, and separately from that he set up the Hashoo Foundation, run by his daughter Sarah Hashwani who combines her role as chairperson of the Hashoo Foundation with that of Hashoo Group Director Corporate Governance and Planning. The foundation aims to help whereever it can, from providing education for the poor and empowering women, through to building a home for handicapped children. In a similar way, he believes the Hashoo Group could have a role to play in reducing PakistanÔÇÖs dependence on imported oil and gas.
In 1991, therefore, the Group launched its first venture into the lucrative oil and gas business, setting up a small company called Zaver Petroleum Corporation Limited (ZPCL). Four years later, following the successful discovery of oil, the company acquired Occidental Pakistan, with its portfolio of production facilities, productive and prospective acreage and its staff. Within two years, Occidental was renamed Orient Petroleum Inc and then eventually Orient Petroleum International Inc (OPII), firmly establishing its identity as a thriving division of the Hashoo Group.
By acquiring Occidental, the company brought on board the assets and expertise of a successful and fully operational entity; one, moreover, that had made the largest discovery of oil in Pakistan in 1979. That site, the Dhurnal Field, continues to produce oil for Orient today.
The company has been continuing the pattern of success achieved by Occidental. ÔÇ£We are doing very well,ÔÇØ Hashwani said. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve drilled about 35 wells and have had 11 discoveries in the south of the country, and we are going to continue drilling in Pakistan.ÔÇØ
With exploratory interests in various areas such as Mehar and Sinjhoro, the company is currently expanding its exploration into Marwat and Maharvi where it has acquired five year exploration licenses. It has also reopened the old Amoco well in Sakhi Sarwar in the Punjab, and studies are now underway to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential of the block. 
Meanwhile, it is operating seven wells at Dhurnal, one of which is used for the disposal of water produced in the process. To date, the wells have produced over 50 million barrels of oil, 129,000 million standard cubic feet (MMscf) of gas and 393,000 metric tons of LPG. At Ratana, some 130 kilometres south west of Islamabad, there are two operational wells which have so far produced 1.4 million barrels of condensate, 32,600 MMscf of gas and 4,900 metric tons of LPG. And finally, the Bhangali facility, only 50 km south of Islamabad, has produced 3.7 million barrels of oil, 9,000 MMscf of gas and 1,600 metric tons of LPG to date.
With operations in Pakistan now providing some energy security for the country, the companyÔÇÖs focus is very much on international expansion. For a number of years it has been running Osprey Petroleum in the United States. ÔÇ£In the last four years weÔÇÖve drilled 11 exploration and development wells in the Gulf of Mexico. WeÔÇÖve made eight commercial discoveries from a 10-well drilling program, which is a drilling success rate of 80 per cent,ÔÇØ Hashwani said.
Expansion has also been forging ahead in central Asia with the establishment of Orient Petroleum (Central Asia), which has been exploring the South Turgay Basin in Kazakhstan since 2000. Three discovery wells have been completed in the region, and the company is now assessing other acquisition opportunities there. It also has its sights on opportunities in Azerbaijan, and has registered in Baku so that it can negotiate oilfield rehabilitation and improved recovery projects in the country.
Looking further afield, the company has established Zaver Petroleum Gulf Limited in Dubai to explore possibilities in the Middle East and Africa. Its first foray into Africa has been to undertake seismic surveys and exploration wells on three large blocks in Sudan. With the initial six year program due to be completed this summer, the company is now well placed to begin developing its finds. Meanwhile, in 2006 it was awarded an exploration licence for a block in the Toudini Basin in Mauritania, and exploration is now under way.
With the bit firmly between its teeth, the Hashoo group aims to continue expanding the oil and gas divisions of the company. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre always looking for more opportunities,ÔÇØ Hashwani concluded, ÔÇ£but weÔÇÖre doing it very conservatively. WeÔÇÖre not gamblers. We proceed cautiously. The rest is the hand of God.ÔÇØ
