Dragon Oil funds largest 3D seismic survey project in Gulf of Suez

Dragon Oil, owned by Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), has announced that it is funding the largest 3D seismic survey project in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, covering an area of 1,035 square kilometres, to support opportunities for discoveries and increased oil production across the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company's (GUPCO) operating areas.

GUPCO, the operating arm of the partnership between Dragon Oil and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), signed a contract with global technology company SLB to conduct the survey using Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) technology. The signing was witnessed by Eng. Karim Badawi, Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

The project is expected to commence in November 2026 and run for approximately two years. It aims to survey approximately 80 percent of GUPCO's development areas, improving the accuracy of geological data, identifying new oil opportunities, supporting sustainable production and increasing production rates.

The project comes as part of Dragon Oil's strategy to expand the use of modern technologies and increase production from the Gulf of Suez fields, in anticipation of the extension and amalgamation of GUPCO's development areas.

With Dragon Oil's support, GUPCO was the first operator to conduct an OBN seismic survey in the central Gulf of Suez in 2020, covering more than 350 square kilometres. The survey aimed to address exploration challenges, improve understanding of subsurface geological structures, and identify promising oil opportunities with greater accuracy.

Following the processing of the seismic survey data in 2022, five exploratory wells were drilled using the data, achieving an 80 percent success rate, compared with approximately 25 percent before its use.

The wells also added approximately 40 million barrels of stock tank oil initially in place (STOIIP) and contributed to GUPCO achieving its highest daily production levels since 2019.

The new project aims to build on the results of the previous survey by providing more accurate data on geological structures across GUPCO's development areas, supporting the identification of future drilling locations and increasing opportunities for oil discoveries, in line with Dragon Oil's ambitions for expansion and growth in Egypt.

WAM