Pakistan to construct island to boost oil exploration: report

Pakistan's state-owned energy company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), has announced plans for an artificial island to boost its oil exploration efforts.

Islamabad has intensified its drilling efforts after US President Donald Trump expressed interest in the country's oil reserves and a recent study indicated the presence of significant yet-to-be-found hydrocarbons in offshore basins.

A PPL official has said that the company plans to construct the island about 30 kilometres off the coast of Sindh near Sujawal, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Citing the company's General Manager, Exploration and Core Business Development, Arshad Palekar, the publication reported that the launchpad would stand tall at a height of six feet, preventing high tides from interrupting round-the-clock exploration work.

Palekar, on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Islamabad, said that PPL was undertaking the project — a first for Pakistan — inspired by Abu Dhabi's successful use of artificial islands for drilling.

The PPL official said that the island's construction work will be completed in February, with operations planned immediately after.

The energy company plans to drill around 25 wells on the island, he added.

The report comes weeks after Pakistan awarded 23 offshore exploration blocks to four consortia, comprising local and foreign firms.

The Ministry of Energy announced on October 31 that the country had held its first such bidding round in nearly two decades, awarding 23 of the 40 offshore blocks offered, covering approximately 53,500 square kilometres.

In July, US President Trump had said that his government concluded a deal with Pakistan, where the two countries will work together on developing Islamabad's "massive oil reserves".

"We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this partnership," he wrote in his post on Truth Social.