Finding the Sweet Spots in a Large Under-Explored Block -- Refocusing Exploration in the Northeast Mediterranean Deep Water Area

By

Stephen Hart¹, Marc Gerrits¹, Hans Meyer¹, Renaat Demyttenaere¹, Eleanor Rowley¹, Magda Nour El-Din¹, Hala Zaki¹, Aly Nassar¹, John Stainforth², Ahmed Abdel-Aal²

(1) Shell Egypt N.V, Cairo, Egypt (2) Shell Deepwater Services, Houston,

 Shell Egypt operates the deep water Northeast Mediterranean concession (Nemed), with partners ExxonMobil (25%) and Petronas (12%). The concession extends over approximately 41,500 km2 of the offshore Nile Delta in water depths ranging from 800-3,000 metres, covering a variety of Plio-Pleistocene and older plays.

The Shorouk-1 and Leil-1 wells were drilled in Nemed in late 2000-early 2001, targeting Pliocene turbidite reservoirs. The well results were encouraging, and to further optimise Shell Egypt's exploration strategy in Nemed, a regional framework study was undertaken, involving calibration with the whole offshore Nile Delta. The current hydrocarbon discoveries in the area (c. 36 Tcf of gas) fall into a number of discrete trends. The aim of the study was to use a full hydrocarbon system analysis to understand the controls on these trends. The remaining exploration 'sweet spots' across the area have been predicted, where the chances of optimal charge, migration, reservoir, trap and retention coincide. This integrated approach has helped to re-focus the exploration activity in Nemed, so as to maximise the chance of future success.