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Bahrain to start seismic survey by end of this year

16 March 2023

Bahrain has nearly completed the design for a planned three-dimensional (3D) seismic survey campaign in its territorial waters, according to Mark Thompson, the chief executive of state energy conglomerate Nogaholding.

“We are designing it now and we will begin shooting it probably before the end of the year,” he said. “The magic will be in the processing and interpretation, which will happen in 2024.”

He added: “The design is almost done. We had a lot of help from some of our collaborative neighbours.

“We have a very large offshore area to shoot and now it is a matter of prioritising: where do we want to shoot first?”

Previous seismic surveys have identified prospects for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas discoveries across the four offshore blocks that are going to be surveyed.

The new campaign will be the first to survey the blocks with 3D seismic technology, and Nogaholding believes that it will improve the results of any subsequent exploratory drilling campaigns that take place.

Globally, oil and gas exploration has seen a surge in activity in recent months.

Last year, the global oil and gas exploration sector had its strongest year in more than a decade.

In its effort to improve portfolios, the sector created at least $33bn of value and achieved full-cycle returns of 22 per cent, at $60-a-barrel Brent prices, according to a recent report from Wood Mackenzie.

The exploration sector continues to be dominated by national oil companies (NOCs) and majors, with QatarEnergy, France-headquartered TotalEnergies and Brazil’s Petrobras leading the way in net new discovered resources in 2022, according to Wood Mackenzie.

In total, NOCs and majors accounted for almost three-quarters of new resources discovered, the research consultancy said.

Bahrain announced the discovery of the large Khalij al-Bahrain offshore hydrocarbons basin – estimated to contain 80 billion barrels of oil and 10-20 trillion cubic feet of gas – in April 2018.

Nearly five years later, Manama has been unable to make significant progress on the commercial appraisal of the oil and gas resources base.

However, the lack of success with Khalij al-Bahrain has not deterred the country from continuing its exploration elsewhere.

In November, state energy conglomerate Nogaholding announced the discovery of natural gas in the two reservoirs of Al-Jawf and Al-Juba. The gas deposits are unconventional and situated in the Khuff and Unayzah geological formations.

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Wil Crisp

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