Gulf of Suez New Discovery: Successful Application of Old and New Technologies, East Zeit Field

By

Mohsen El Melegi¹, David Blanchard², H. B. David³, D. Scott Bird³, D. Nollsch³

(1) Ocean East Zeit Petroleum Ltd, Cairo, Egypt (2) Ocean Energy Egypt, Austin, TX (3) Ocean Energy Inc, Houston,

 East Zeit is one of several fields located in the offshore Southern Gulf Of Suez, along the prolific structural “B” trend. The field is about 8 miles to the east of the Gebel Zeit basement outcrop and lies in the central-southern part of the Suez rift.

East Zeit field was discovered by GUPCO in 1976. Subsequently, Esso acquired, explored and developed the field during the period 1981- 1996. Cumulative production as of February 2002 is 88.6 MMB, of which 50 % is produced from Pre-Miocene Nubia Fm and the remaining 50 % from the Miocene reservoirs Nukhul, Kareem and Upper Rudeis. The structural style is dominated by tilted fault blocks bounded by NW - SE oriented normal, down to the notheast faults and dissected by oblique and orthogonal faults. Reservoirs range in age from Cretaceous to Miocene.

Ocean identified and drilled a new fault block on the license that resulted in a Nubia Fm discovery from the A-21 well in 2001. Success was due to the application of tried and true exploration techniques along with innovative technology, including integration of sub-surface geologic data and structural modeling with 3D seismic and high-resolution aero-magnetic data interpretation. Achievement was also made possible by employing innovative drilling practices and resulted in setting a horizontal displacement drilling record in Egypt. Total depth reached from the “A” platform was 16,336 feet md. with a maximum horizontal displacement of over 11,000 feet.

This discovery once again demonstrates that significant exploration potential remains in the southern Gulf of Suez.