PPL Fourth Hydrocarbon Discovery at Shah Bandar Puts PPL and Mari Petroleum in Focus

What the Rahi X-1 Discovery Found at Shah Bandar

Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has made its fourth consecutive gas and condensate discovery at the Shah Bandar exploration block in Sujawal district, Sindh. The find came at the exploratory well Rahi X-1, which PPL operates with a 63% working interest alongside joint venture partner Mari Petroleum (MARI), which holds a 32% stake, plus two smaller unlisted partners with 2.5% each.

Drilling started on June 17, 2026 and reached a depth of 2,612 metres, targeting the Upper Sand of the Lower Goru Formation, a rock layer already known to hold hydrocarbons in this part of Sindh. After identifying a hydrocarbon bearing zone, PPL ran a drill stem test, a controlled flow test done through the well casing to measure how much gas and liquid the zone can actually produce.

The well flowed at 0.493 million standard cubic feet per day of gas, a modest rate for a Pakistani gas well, plus 12 barrels a day of condensate, a light oil sold alongside the gas, at a wellhead flow pressure of 133 psi.

Why PPL Stock Is in Focus

PPL operates the Shah Bandar block and books the discovery as its own exploration success, so the news lands on it directly. The company already runs one of Pakistan's largest gas weighted exploration and production portfolios, and a fourth hydrocarbon zone at the same block strengthens the case that the acreage still has more to give.

The scale is what keeps this from being a bigger event. A flow rate well under 1 mmscfd is small next to PPL's existing output across its many wells, so the immediate earnings effect is limited. What it does support is the reserve replacement story: successive finds within one block usually mean cheaper future development, since pipelines, processing facilities and access roads already built at Shah Bandar can often serve new wells still being appraised.

Which Stocks, and Why

Mari Petroleum carries the news too, since it holds a 32% working interest in the same well and licence. Its share of any eventual output add is proportionate to that stake, so the direct read through is the same as PPL's: a positive but small data point rather than a company changing find. Mari's own flagship asset, the giant Mari gas field, is far larger than Shah Bandar, which is why one well here is unlikely to move Mari's overall production profile much on its own.

Both companies earn on pricing formulas tied to international energy benchmarks and the exchange rate rather than the output of any single well, so today's news is best read as an addition to each company's reserve base and drilling track record at Shah Bandar, not a change to the pricing or cost side of their business.

What to Watch

The drill stem test result is a data point, not a production decision. The next milestones are whether PPL takes Rahi X-1 through full appraisal and connects it for commercial flow, and whether the company updates its reserve estimates for the Shah Bandar block in its next quarterly filing. It is also worth watching PPL's and Mari's future exploration updates for whether this run of consecutive discoveries at the same block continues.