UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced in a statement that it has awarded a contract worth approximately $519 million (AED1.9 billion) to further expand the scope of the world’s largest combined three-dimensional (3D) onshore and offshore seismic survey, which is currently taking place in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The contract was awarded to BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), represented in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Al Masood Oil Industry Supplies & Services Co.
This new award brings the total area to be covered by the survey up to 85,000 Sq.km.
This contract increases the scope of the ongoing seismic mega survey to capture coastal areas, islands, and shallow water. It will utilize state-of-the-art technologies including cableless equipment and a wide range of environmentally friendly seismic sources
As per the statement, the expansion underscores the important role seismic surveying plays in enabling ADNOC to identify and explore new hydrocarbon resources as highlighted by the recent major discoveries of recoverable unconventional oil resources and conventional oil reserves announced by Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) earlier this week.
In addition, this mega seismic survey also supported the discovery of the conventional oil and gas reserves and the unconventional gas resources added to ADNOC’s portfolio in 2019.
This data is being leveraged by all of the successful exploration partners in Abu Dhabi’s first block bid round and the data will also be available, for a cost, to the successful bidders in the second bid round, which will begin to be awarded this year following the SPC’s recent approval.
In July 2018, ADNOC awarded the first set of contracts for the seismic survey and has so far recorded almost 60% progress in executing the initial scope which includes onshore and offshore areas. The entire survey, including the added coastal scope, is on track to be completed in 2024.
Earlier this week, the SPC announced the discovery of recoverable unconventional oil resources estimated at 22 billion stock tank barrels (STB) and an increase in conventional oil reserves of 2 billion STB which boosted the UAE’s conventional reserves to 107 billion STB.
In November 2019, the SPC announced increases in hydrocarbon reserves of 7 billion STB of oil and 58 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of conventional gas, as well as the discovery of unconventional recoverable gas resources totaling 160 TSCF.
