The ignition of a pulsed methane jet by a laser-induced spark was investigated in air under the influence of homogenous and isotropic turbulence with zero mean flow. In this way, the contribution of the turbulent velocity fluctuations of the environment can be isolated from the mean flow component. The fuel jet Reynolds number (Re jet ) was fixed at 160, while the turbulent Reynolds numbers (Re λ ) of the environment was in the range of 0-220. The influence of the surrounding turbulence on the spatial distribution of the flame luminosity was evaluated and an increasingly random distribution of the flame was obtained under higher turbulent intensity. The Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) was determined by measuring ignition probability for three different ignition locations. The MIE was found to increase with the surrounding turbulent intensity and had a significant dependence on ignition location. A disagreement between the spatial distribution of MIE and mixture fraction was observed. This is probably due to the finite size of the plasma, which has a more significant influence on the ignition probability at locations near the nozzle tip. The increase rate of the MIE with the level of turbulence was different at different ignition locations; this might be caused by the difference in the extent to which turbulence influences the mixture fraction at these locations. This effect is likely to be larger at positions near the methane/jet interface and at a distance from the nozzle exit, while it is smaller at positions near the centreline and the nozzle exit.