Egypt’s West Mediterranean Sea – An Exploration Opportunity

Abstract

Despite lying in the neighbourhood of one of the most prolific petroleum provinces of Africa, Egypt’s West Mediterranean Sea has seen exploration efforts limited by a lack of data and clarity of license block delineation. Recently acquired long offset GeoStreamer® seismic data, together with anticipated licence round activities has suddenly thrust this area to the forefront of oil companies exploration plans in 2018. Additional 2D acquisition has also started across this frontier area further increasing seismic coverage, this data will be available prior to the announcement of the first license round offshore west Egypt The area can be divided into several geological domains with multiple play types observed across the shelf, the transform margin and the basin. Analogous plays and structures have been linked to the producing onshore western Desert, the prolific Nile Delta pre & post salt biogenic plays and isolated carbonate features that have similar characteristics to that of Zohr. It is believed that Egypt’s West Mediterranean Sea contains all aspects relevant for a potentially prospective working petroleum system(s). Therefore, Offshore West Egypt is rapidly attracting attention as a potential new petroleum province in the Eastern Mediterranean.