PPL unlocks a New Hydrocarbon Play at the edge of land and sea
KARACHI, August 17, 2026: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) is proud to make a pioneering gas and condensate discovery from its operated exploratory well Dolphin X-1 at Sirani Block in District Sujawal, Sindh. This is the first-ever hydrocarbon discovery from Jurassic age Chiltan Formation in Lower Indus Basin, opening up a new hydrocarbon play.
This milestone reflects the far-reaching vision of Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif implemented under the able leadership of Federal Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, enabling exploration in untapped, challenging frontiers.
With this, PPL, has proved the working petroleum system and opened up a new exploration frontier across onshore marshy area and its possible extensions into shallow offshore, further enhancing the prospectivity of Pakistan shallow offshore. This area was long considered inaccessible for exploration due to its challenging geographical location and marshy terrain.
PPL is the first E&P company to overcome this challenging marshy terrain and successfully deployed specialized transition equipment to acquire vital 2D and 3D seismic data and converted an unexplored frontier area into a proven petroleum play.
Dolphin X-1 was spud on April 17, 2026 and drilled down to 3,850m MD depth to test the hydrocarbon potential of Chiltan Formation. Hydrocarbon bearing zone was identified based on the drilling results and acquired wireline logs data. During testing Chiltan Formation flowed good quality gas with heating value of ~ 1000 Btu/scf at rate of 0.942 MMscfd gas at Wellhead Flowing Pressure of 211 psig at a 32/64″ choke.
Sirani Block is operated by PPL with 75% Working Interest (WI) along with joint venture partner Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL) with 25% WI. The well was drilled and tested by utilizing indigenous expertise and discovered new hydrocarbon play within Chiltan Limestone.
PPL acknowledges Pakistan Navy’s invaluable support throughout the project and for making this outcome possible.
Preliminary results of geological, geophysical and engineering test data suggest tight nature of the reservoir. However, this needs to be confirmed based on further detailed evaluation of G&G and Reservoir Engineering data collected during the well’s drilling and testing.
