The state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to implement the largest seismic oil and gas exploration project in the Mediterranean, Chairman Khaled Abdel Badei announced Thursday.
EGAS has signed a deal with Norwegian seismic surveyor PGS to conduct two and three-dimensional scans in the western zone of Egypt’s territorial Mediterranean waters, Abdel Badei said.
The Head did not mention the value of the deal.
Abdel Badei affirmed that seismic oil and gas exploration project is seeking data that could attract global exploration companies.
Seismic explorers search for oil and gas deposits under the sea by bouncing sound waves off rock from cables towed across the water, the chairman clarified.
He said that the deal is a part of a plan to increase Egypt’s domestic production of natural gas by intensifying search and exploration operations as well as conducting international auctions in areas that have not been explored previously.
Moreover, the chairman stated that 80% of Egypt’s natural gas reserves are in the eastern and central zones of Egypt’s territorial waters in the Mediterranean, where exploration traditionally takes place.
