Pakistan is preparing to launch its most unconventional offshore campaign yet in the form of a purpose-built artificial island in the Arabian Sea that will act as a fixed platform for deep exploration work. The project, led by Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL), aligns with Islamabad’s renewed push to reverse years of declining domestic crude supply.
According to Gulf News, the government has approved the construction of an artificial island some 30 kilometres off the Sindh coast, designed to support rigs, storage and heavy-equipment staging. The island will be built above high-tide levels to ensure uninterrupted drilling operations. PPL expects construction to finish early next year, followed directly by spud-in of the first well.
PPL plans to use the island as a launch point for up to 25 wells, modeled on similar artificial-island drilling systems used in Abu Dhabi. The structure is meant to eliminate the wave-load exposure that stalled prior offshore wells before they reached target depth.
Analysis from Mettis Global notes that shifting heavy-equipment logistics onto a fixed base could reduce contingency spending by as much as one-third, which is a significant advantage for a basin in which weather-related delays have repeatedly produced cost overruns.
The new offshore buildout aligns with Islamabad’s broader licensing overhaul, which includes 23 recently awarded offshore blocks. The government is using the awards to accelerate frontier drilling in deepwater acreage long considered too costly and technically risky, and officials say the new terms are designed to pull in multi-year capital commitments after a decade of weak investment.
Pakistan’s new round of offshore awards adds fresh acreage to a sector that has seen repeated interruptions and limited follow-through on earlier campaigns. The government says the latest blocks are meant to restart work in deepwater areas that have remained largely untouched, with operators expected to advance into drilling once the initial survey requirements are completed.
Engineering tenders for Pakistan’s artificial island are expected to be finalized within months, setting up the country’s first sustained offshore drilling campaign in more than a decade.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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