Pakistan Restarts Offshore Oil Hunt After 20 YearsBusiness

The vessel is operated by the Turkish Petroleum Offshore Company, the offshore arm of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation. Its first survey will focus on the Eastern Offshore Indus C block in the Arabian Sea, where the Turkish company holds a 25 per cent stake and the operatorship. Pakistan Petroleum Limited holds 35 per cent of the block, while the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Mari Energies each hold 20 per cent. Pakistani media have identified the vessel as the Oruc Reis, although the Petroleum Division’s announcement did not name it.

A seismic survey vessel does not drill for oil. The ship will map geological structures beneath the seabed to identify areas that may hold oil or gas and to pick out possible locations for future drilling. The survey alone cannot confirm whether commercially viable reserves exist. That can only be established through exploratory drilling and further technical and commercial evaluation, which would come months or years later and only if the survey results justify it.

The campaign follows Pakistan’s Offshore Bid Round 2025, launched after an 18-year gap, which offered exploration licences across 40 blocks in the Indus and Makran offshore basins. Twenty-three of those blocks were awarded. Earlier estimates cited by Dawn put the potential of the Eastern Offshore Indus C block at around 1.5 to 2 trillion cubic feet of gas, based on earlier seismic work, but that figure is not a confirmation of recoverable reserves. The most recent offshore well, Kekra-1, was drilled in 2019 by a consortium led by ExxonMobil and ENI and found no commercial hydrocarbons.

The meeting in Islamabad was attended by the secretary petroleum, senior Petroleum Division officials, the Turkish company’s project manager and the managing directors of the Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Government Holdings. Representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs, maritime affairs, defence and interior, along with the National Hydrographic Office, the Board of Investment and the Directorate General Ports and Shipping, also took part. The minister directed the Petroleum Division and the departments concerned to coordinate closely so that maritime permissions, port arrangements and security are completed in time.

What happens next

Once the vessel reaches Karachi, the survey campaign will begin mapping the seabed. Officials say the results will shape future decisions on exploratory drilling, and that a successful campaign could attract further investment and help Pakistan reduce its reliance on imported fuel. For now, however, the announcement marks a restart rather than a discovery, and the real test will be what the survey data shows.