BP has awarded a new seismic imaging programme to CGG in Egypt. The award comes shortly after the supermajor won more exploration acreage in the country.
CGG said BP, and its joint venture partner Pharaonic Petroleum, had awarded it 3D seismic imaging work. The French-based seismic company said the contract was the first ever ocean bottom node (OBN) survey in the Nile Delta, covering the Atoll and Atoll North fields.
CGG said it would provide its OBS and FWI imaging technologies to the work, at its UK and Cairo centres. This will provide the “highest quality 3D seismic” on pre-Messinian targets. The data will provide scope for improved field development planning and near-field exploration, it said.
“With our in-depth geological knowledge of the region, based on our 35-year operating experience in Egypt, and our industry-leading OBS imaging technology, I have every confidence in CGG’s ability to overcome the seismic imaging challenges in this area and deliver the best possible subsurface insight to bp and joint-venture partners at Atoll,” said CGG executive vice president Peter Whiting.
New block
BP, in late June, said it had won the King Mariout Offshore block, around 20 km west of the Raven field. The licence covers 2,600 square km, with water depths ranging from 500 to 2,100 metres.
The King Mariout block is in the West Nile Delta. BP said there was potential for material gas discoveries, which it could develop using existing infrastructure.
Egyptian Natural Gas Holding (EGAS) awarded BP the block under its 2021 bid round.
BP won a stake in another block, EGY-MED-E5, earlier this year.
The licences underpin “our ambitious development plans in the offshore Nile Delta, leveraging our existing infrastructure to continue delivering resilient and focused hydrocarbons for Egypt’s growing gas market”, BP North Africa regional president Karim Alaa said.
BP started up production at the Raven field in 2021. It started up the first phase of work at Atoll in early 2018. This field is the East Nile Delta’s North Damietta licence. The company started up the Qattameya in late 2020, on the same licence.