PPL to build Pakistan’s first artificial offshore island for oil and gas exploration

Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to reclaim land from the sea and build an artificial island to support its offshore oil and gas exploration efforts, Bloomberg reported.

The structure, which will be positioned about 300 kilometers off the Sindh coast, is intended to serve as a key operational base for upcoming exploration work.

Sharing the details at an oil and gas conference in Islamabad, Arshad Palekar, PPL’s General Manager for Exploration and Core Business Development, said the island will be elevated six feet above sea level and engineered to withstand strong tides. The design, he added, will allow exploration teams to operate continuously without disruptions.

The project is the first of its kind in Pakistan and follows the model of artificial islands built in Abu Dhabi, where similar offshore structures have been used for drilling. PPL expects construction to be finished by February, after which exploration activities will begin immediately.

This development comes shortly after PPL entered into a partnership with Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company (TPOC), a subsidiary of Turkey’s state-owned TPAO.

Announced last month, the agreement involves a farm-out arrangement in the Eastern Offshore Indus C Block and aims to deepen cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey in offshore energy exploration.