Pakistan and Türkiye are preparing to resume offshore oil and gas exploration after a gap of nearly two decades, with a Turkish seismic survey vessel expected to reach Karachi between 17 and 20 November.

The Petroleum Division announced the plan on Friday, and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik chaired a high-level meeting in Islamabad to review preparations for the vessel's arrival and the start of the exploration campaign. The government says it will provide full support to the initiative and is finalising operational, security, maritime and logistical arrangements.

The vessel is operated by the Turkish Petroleum Offshore Company (TPOC), the offshore arm of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation. It will survey the Eastern Offshore Indus-C block in the Arabian Sea, where TPOC holds a 25 per cent interest and the operatorship. Pakistan Petroleum Limited holds 35 per cent of the block, while Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Mari Energies each hold 20 per cent.

A survey, not a discovery

The arrival of the vessel will restart offshore exploration work that has been largely dormant for close to twenty years. Pakistan launched its Offshore Bid Round 2025 after an 18-year gap, offering exploration licences across 40 blocks in the Indus and Makran offshore basins.

It is important to be clear about what the survey will and will not do. A seismic survey produces data about the geology beneath the seabed; only drilling, months or years away and only if the survey results justify it, can confirm whether commercially viable reserves exist. Pakistan Petroleum Limited has estimated the block could hold 1.5 to 2 trillion cubic feet of gas, based on earlier seismic work, but that is an estimate of what the geology might hold, not a confirmed reserve. Pakistani media have identified the vessel as the Oruç Reis, although the Petroleum Division's own announcement did not name it.