Oil Rig

Saudi state-owned Aramco has been administering a tender for a seismic survey of Saudi territorial waters in the Red Sea. Industry sources said European companies have submitted bids to survey 14,000 square kilometers in a project worth up to $200 million.

Some of the bidders were identified as Norway’s Petroleum Geo-Services, the Netherlands’s Fugro and Britain’s WesternGeco. Aramco has been preparing to begin drilling for energy reserves in the Red Sea in 2012.

The sources said Aramco has deemed the Red Sea the next major source for crude oil and natural gas for the Saudi kingdom. Saudi Arabia has reached a capacity to produce 12.5 million barrels of oil per day.

Exploration activities are taking place across the red sea region. Sudan has recently started drilling its first overseas offshore exploration well in the Red Sea Basin off Sudan with the help of the state China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The well falls in Area 15 under the franchise of the Red Sea Petroleum Operating Co., a consortium of five firms including the CNPC, Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas, Sudan’s state oil firm Sudapet, Nigeria’s Express Petroleum and Sudanese firm High Tech Group. Petronas and CNPC each have a 35 percent interest in the block 15.

According to the Sudanese minister of Energy and Mining the results from prospecting for oil and gas in the Red Sea are positive.

Tokar-1 is one of two exploration wells in Block 15, located some 130 kilometers southeast of Port Sudan. The CNPC and its partners plan to complete drilling in six months. The wells have a designed drilling depth of 3,700 meters, and water depths of 38 meters and 52 meters respectively.

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