Egypt Signs Seismic Survey Deal Covering 110,000 Square Kilometers
EGPC's agreement with Saudi contractor Ardiseis covers 2D seismic work across Matrouh and New Valley, an area equal to about 11% of Egypt.
The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation has signed an agreement with Ardiseis, a Saudi Arabia-based contractor, to carry out a 2D seismic survey over 110,000 square kilometers of the Western Desert. The area equals roughly 11% of Egypt's total territory.
Work will run across Matrouh and New Valley governorates, with the program concentrating on locations where previous seismic coverage is thin or the data on hand is out of date. Ardiseis will acquire and process new information meant to refresh EGPC's view of the subsurface and point to oil and gas plays that have not yet been tested.
Findings are expected to serve two purposes. They will support an assessment of petroleum potential across the covered ground, and they will prepare the way for offering new exploration blocks to oil and gas companies. EGPC also expects the survey to strengthen its seismic database for the most promising parts of the Western Desert and to improve how it identifies possible hydrocarbon accumulations. Fresher data should inform where investment is allocated and where wells are drilled, and should reduce the risk attached to those decisions.
The project falls within a five-year petroleum ministry plan to intensify exploration using updated geological and seismic information. Improved datasets are intended to pinpoint opportunities with greater accuracy and to encourage companies to put money into Egyptian acreage.
Much of the commercial value will be realized at the licensing stage. Acreage backed by current survey data gives operators a firmer basis for bidding and for committing rigs, while blocks marketed on stale information leave them guessing.
Ardiseis has surveyed in Egypt before. The company recently completed comparable seismic work in the West Assiut area, an exercise the petroleum ministry has described in positive terms.
Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi attended the signing ceremony. EGPC Chairman Salah Abdel Karim signed for the state company, and Ardiseis' regional director in Egypt, Sameh Saeed, signed for the contractor. Egyptian and Saudi officials were present.
The program is also aimed at improving the odds of finding new reserves, drawing more exploration and drilling investment, and supporting higher domestic oil and gas output so that the gap between what Egypt produces and what it consumes narrows.
