TGS, Schlumberger start seismic survey of Red Sea oil

CAIRO – 24 December 2017: Norwegian geophysical company TGS and Texas-based Schlumberger started working on their new 2D seismic project on the Red Sea, an official source in the Ministry of Petroleum said Sunday.

The acquisition and imaging technique works, which officially started in mid-December, are expected to conclude by the end of the first quarter of 2018, the source told Egypt Today.

The Ministry of Petroleum, represented by South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope), signed in July an agreement with Schlumberger and TGS to provide the government with geo-science data for exploring and producing oil and gas, with $750 million contracts to start collecting the geo-science data in Egyptian waters.

Under the agreement, the two companies have a minimum 15-year period of exclusive multi-client rights in approximately 70,000 square kilometers of open area on the Red Sea to do the seismic survey.

"The unexplored offshore Egyptian Red Sea area is made up of large, untested structures and well-established hydrocarbon systems, which offer exceptional growth opportunities for oil companies," CEO of TGS Kristian Johansen said in a press release last week, adding that the acquisition program is the initial step in mitigating the complex salt imaging challenges of this opportunity.

Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla disclosed in July that Egypt plans to explore oil in Red Sea for the first time in history, following the maritime demarcation agreement signed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with expectations of huge findings in the new area.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated a mean volume of 5 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 112 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Red Sea Basin Province using a geology-based assessment methodology, according to their official website.

Gas and oil explorations usually exist in the Mediterranean Sea, Nile Delta, Eastern Desert, Gulf of Suez, and east of the Western Desert, making the Red Sea a virgin area for exploration.