Pakistan is building a new island. It is because of Trump

Pakistan seems to have taken its newfound hero, US President Donald Trump's "drill, baby, drill" slogan, seriously. Months after Trump showed interest in the country's "massive oil reserves", surprising not just industry experts but Pakistan itself, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) is building an artificial island to ramp up oil and gas exploration.

The island will be coming up about 30 km off the coast of Sindh, near Sujawal, which is located near the River Indus, according to a report in Bloomberg. Sujawal is around 130 km from Karachi, the main commercial hub of Pakistan.

DRILL, PAKISTAN, DRILL

For uninterrupted and round-the-clock drilling work, the structure will be six feet high to shield operations from high tides. The island's construction is expected to be completed in February next year, with operations starting immediately, PPL general manager Arshad Palekar told Bloomberg. PPL aims to drill around 25 wells.

Building artificial islands for drilling, by reclaiming land from the sea, is uncharted territory for Pakistan, and the project is a first for the country. However, the concept is not new, and countries like the UAE have built such islands, replacing traditional offshore rigs, to increase production capacity.

Such islands are built by depositing soil, sand, or other construction materials until the water surface is penetrated and an island surface is created.

One of the major advantages is that personnel can live and work on the same island, reducing the cost and time of travelling to the work site, thereby increasing efficiency.

The US, Britain, and the Middle East have built a number of such islands for use as solid waste depositories or fills. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Japan has built about 50 artificial islands, and so has China.

But, for Pakistan to spend billions on such a facility is a different story altogether. Simply because there is no reliable proof that Pakistan has any substantive, untapped oil reserves.

The country, which ranks 50th globally in crude oil reserves, imports more than 80% of its oil. Moreover, its daily oil production is around one-tenth of that of India.

A 2019 bid to drill the Kekra-1 well, near the Karachi coast, was suspended after nothing was found. It eventually led to the exit of US giant Exxon Mobil from the market. In recent years, several oil companies have left Pakistan's shores, including Kuwait Petroleum Corp and Shell. TotalEnergies SE also sold its stake in a fuel business.

TRUMP CLAIMS MASSIVE OIL RESERVES

For now, Pakistan's only hope seems to be Trump's July post on Truth Social, in which he trumpeted developing "massive oil reserves" with the country. He even went on to say that India, which imports most of its energy from Russia, might end up being a potential buyer of this oil.

"We have just concluded a deal with Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive oil reserves," Trump said.

It came as ties between Pakistan, which has turned to massaging Trump's ego, and the US witnessed a drastic change in the last few months.

From signing cryptocurrency deals to crediting Trump for ending the hostilities with India and proposing his name for the Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan has been in overdrive to curry favour with the US President.

With Trump's remark sparking renewed interest in Pakistan's oil and gas sector, Pakistan has granted offshore exploration licences to several firms, including PPL.

The new island is being constructed near the Indus basin, where India's Bombay High is also located. There is, however, no doubt that it can potentially have oil reserves. However, finding exploitable resources is the challenge.

Experts and social media users have already called out Pakistan's move.

"Bro (Trump) dropped one hyped-up comment, and an entire country said, 'bet, let's terraform the ocean'. If this turns into another empty promise, that island is gonna be the world's most expensive sandcastle," one user tweeted.

Another called the island a bunker being built for "billionaires in the West". "So a select few ruling elite can go and hide there away from the hands of the public," the post read.

Whether Pakistan's move pays off or it slips on oil remains to be seen. For now, it's all Trump bharose.

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