Pakistan has reopened its offshore frontier to oil and gas exploration, with Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik signing 21 new production sharing agreements and exploration licences to close out the Offshore Bid Round 2025. Combined with two blocks awarded in December 2025, the total reaches 23 deepwater blocks covering 54,600 sq km across the under explored Indus and Makran basins. It ends an almost 18 year drought in offshore activity off the Pakistani coast.
The agreements lock in $82m of committed spending on seismic surveys and geological studies, with the potential to attract up to $1bn in further capital if early work points to drillable prospects. State run Mari Energies Limited emerged as the largest player, taking 18 blocks as operator and five as a partner. Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum Limited each secured stakes in eight blocks, with Prime Global Energies, United Energy Pakistan, Orient Petroleum and Turkish Petroleum also winning acreage.
The scale of the opening is striking given how little of Pakistan's waters have been tested. The country holds a maritime economic zone of more than 282,000 sq km, yet only 18 exploratory wells have been drilled offshore since independence in 1947. Pakistan Petroleum Limited has separately confirmed plans to drill an offshore well in 2026 on the Sirani block, around 30 km off the Sujawal district in Sindh, relying on seismic data acquired in 2006 and 2007. A commercial discovery there could lead to as many as 25 follow on wells.
For Islamabad, the round is as much an economic lever as a geological one. Pakistan is heavily exposed to imported crude and LNG, and the government is betting that domestic offshore resources could cut that bill and bring development spending to coastal communities in Sindh and Balochistan. Several global energy majors are already working through the offshore data packages, according to the petroleum ministry, signalling that South Asia's quietest oil and gas frontier may finally be drawing serious international attention again.