Qarun oil field lies on the Southeast flank of the Kattaniya uplift, and the Northwest flank of the Cenozoic Gindi basin 80 kms southwest of Cairo. The Kattaniya uplift is an inverted Mesozoic basin containing thick middle Jurassic Khatatba oil prone source rocks which generated oil which migrated southeastward to charge Qarun field along a NE-SW trending intra-basinal paleo arch separating the Kattaniya inverted basin from the Gindi basin.

Qarun (A lobe) field was discovered in October 1994 by Phoenix Resources Company and partners Apache Corporation and Global Natural Resources (Seagull Energy) with the drilling of the El-Sagha 1A wildcat, which encountered oil pay in both Cenomanian Bahariya and Albian Kharita sandstones. The updip El-Sagha 3X confirmation well encountered over 285 feet of net oil pay in Bahariya and Kharita sands in a continuous gross oil column exceeding 500 feet. The well tested at an aggregate rate of 11957 BOPD of 42° gravity oil. Primary reservoirs arc found at depths between 8700 and 9400 feet.

The Qarun field complex (A, B & C lobes) consists of two faulted, enechelon compressional folds trending NE-SW. During September 1996, the C-1X well opened up Qarun Southwest field (C-lobe) logging 275 feet of net oil sand in the Bahariya and Kharita. The well tested at a combined rate of 4600 BOPD. Also during September 1996, the Wadi Rayan-1X wildcat, situated 55 kms south of Qarun field, on the south flank of the Gindi Basin, tested 950 BOPD of 25° gravity oil from Cenomanian Abu Roash “G” sandstones at 5500 feet. This discovery opens up a new exploration trend in the southern portion of the Qarun concession.

Further south, some 75 kms from Qarun field, within the adjacent East Beni Suef concession, the Beni Suef-1X wildcat tested 40° gravity oil from the Bahariya and Kharita at a depth of approximately 7000 feet at an aggregate rate of 6976 BOPD during September 1997. This well, operated by Seagull Energy International, with partner Apache Corporation, confirms a new productive basin which seismic indicates extends eastward, across the Nile River.