Egypt Red Sea

Why the Egyptian Red Sea?

The Red Sea remains underexplored but is one of the world’s biggest spotlight areas for hydrocarbon exploration after the Arabian Gulf. The densely explored Gulf of Suez and natural oil seeps around the Red Sea show that a working petroleum system is in place in the northern Red Sea and some of the southern provinces.

Egypt is now exploring beyond the Gulf of Suez after the bilateral maritime demarcation with Saudi Arabia has been signed. The Red Sea, a frontier basin, contains an estimated mean volume of 5 Bbbls of undiscovered but recoverable oil and 112 tcf of natural gas (Schenk et al., USGS 2010). Since 1976, more than 28,000 km of 2D and about 4,000 km² of 3D seismic data have been acquired, along with 12 exploration wells drilled through several concessions.

EGPC & Ganope License Round

Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has announced the launch of a new exploration bidding round coordinated by the regulators, EGPC and Ganope. It includes an impressive 23 new zones, including 10 in the Western Desert, two in the Eastern Desert, seven in the Gulf of Suez and four in the Red Sea. Three blocks in Upper Egypt are covered by our Enhanced Full Tensor Gradiometry (eFTG) data, and our modern 3D multi-client seismic data covers three blocks in the Red Sea.

The period for receiving offers and inquiries about the auction and the proposed areas is planned to extend until Sunday, April 1, 2024.

Egypt Red Sea Seismic Data

We acquired over 10,000 km of regional 2D seismic data before the commencement of new 3D seismic data. The latest data was acquired in partnership with SLB and Ganope in 2 phases in 2022 and provides more than 12,000 km² of broadband seismic 3D in the western Red Sea. The African side of the Red Sea, largely overlooked by industry in the past, may have higher commercial prospectivity than believed. The regional coverage of the new seismic data allows the Egyptian Red Sea to be linked to the tested plays.