Oil and gas land survey agreement signed

Energy Ministry preparing onshore oil draft law

The Ministry of Energy and Water signed today January 10 an agreement with the US-based NEOS Geosolutions MENA, who will conduct an onshore airborne survey of the potential natural resources in the northern half of the country.

The survey, named ‘Cedars Oil’, will be made over the northern part, flying over an area of 6,000 square kilometers. NEOS Geosolutions is specialized in multi-measurement subsurface interpretation. It is represented by its local partner ‘PetroServ’, in the local market.

According to Frank Jreij, General Manager of NEOS Geo MENA, “this technology would make the surveying prove more timely and efficient by using the latest computing technologies.” Airborne survey is expected to cut down the time needed by regular survey methods to examine the entire area, from three years to one year.

The survey will be done using an airplane that has a range of six different sensors. Jreij said: “The readings conducted by these sensors will be combined to data already available to form a three-dimensional model of the petroleum potential in the northern terrain.”

The Ministry revealed that it is working on a draft law to modernize the onshore oil law which was amended for the last time in 1975.

The Ministry will bear no cost as the agreement mentions underwriters who will take care of all the required funding. “These confidential entities could be companies interested in the exploration and production phase, or investors that have companies interested in bidding as their partners, or can be ordinary investors,” he said. The Ministry will receive a percentage of the profits depending on the amount of data that will be sold.

The first phase of the project, which is obtaining all the required permits, will take up to two months. The data acquisition phase will take up to seven months. “The overall process of data collection and analysis will require between 12 and 18 months,” said Jreij.