PPL says not creating artificial island, building setup to support marshy area drilling operations
State-owned energy company Pakistan Petroleum Ltd on Thursday issued a clarification that it was enabling safe drilling operations in a marshy area near Sujawal and not reclaiming land from the sea to build an island.
US outlet Bloomberg reported a day ago that PPL was reclaiming land from the sea to create a launchpad to ramp up oil and gas exploration. Citing PPL’s General Manager Exploration and Core Business Development, Arshad Palekar, Bloomberg reported that the artificial island would be created about 30 kilometres off the coast of Sindh, near Sujawal.
However, in a statement issued today, available with Dawn, PPL said: “We would like to clarify that the aforesaid media coverage is misleading and does not fully reflect the technical scope and design of the project.
“The activities underway relate to enabling safe drilling operations in a challenging marshy environment, rather than the development of a standalone offshore island. This is a technically complex and unique initiative, and is among the first projects in Pakistan to undertake drilling in such a marshy, tide-affected area.”
It said the project was located in the southern marshy region of the Sirani Block, which it said had previously remained unexplored due to significant operational and accessibility constraints. The company said the well’s initial drilling would be carried out in March 2026.
“PPL has already successfully acquired 2D and 3D seismic data in this area using specialised transition-zone equipment. Construction activities are currently in progress to support drilling operations, including development of loading/offloading jetties and an access road linking the offloading jetty to the well site. Due to the marshy subsoil conditions and tidal influence, both the access road and the well pad are being raised by approximately nine feet to ensure operational continuity and mitigate the effects of low and high tides.”
It added that the well’s location was approximately 30km from the mainland and a natural water channel of approximately 17km between the loading and offloading jetties would be used to transport rig equipment and materials via barges.
Pakistan’s drilling efforts are gaining fresh momentum after United States President Donald Trump indicated an interest in the country’s “massive oil reserves” in a social media post in July.
Since then, Islamabad has awarded offshore exploration licenses to local companies PPL, Mari Energies Ltd and Prime International Oil and Gas Company.
