Egypt Looks To Kickstart WestMed Exploration With Seismic Surge

1 Dec 2023 Issue: 66 / 48 By: James Cockayne, Peter Stevenson

Egypt’s 2021 award of virgin blocks in its West Med area has failed so far to spur a surge in exploration. Cairo is hoping seismic surveys in partnership with Norway’s PGS will turn up new deepwater prospects and renew interest.

Norway’s PGS on 22 November began shooting multi-client 2D seismic in Egypt’s ultra-deepwater Herodotus Basin. The ‘Ramform Titan’ is shooting across a wide area of currently-open acreage in around 3,000ms water depth some 180km north of the Western Desert port of Matruh and 200-300km southeast of Crete (see map).

This area is north of (ie further offshore from) the ‘West Med’ blocks awarded to majors Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and TotalEnergies back in 2021 (MEES, 8 January 2021). Whilst Cairo scored a coup in snagging a full house of majors, the firms have conducted only minimal exploration across the acreage since – though Exxon plans to drill the region’s first well on its North Marakia block in Q2 next year (MEES, 12 May). (CONTINUED - 739 WORDS)