Not too many, not too few
The Shewashan oil field is located in one of the world’s most famous petroleum provinces – the Zagros fold and thrust belt – not far from the major Kirkuk field.…
Middle East
Time to recycle party balloons
A third of the world’s helium comes from Qatar, a lucrative by-product of natural gas production. Even though the North Field contains only 0.04 % helium, the vast volumes of…
An unconventional unconventional gas project
When I visited the MEOS GEO Conference in Bahrain last in 2025 and spoke to some people about projects currently ongoing in the region, it slowly dawned on me that…
The Grand Canyon of the Middle East
The outcrop photo shows what is commonly known as the Grand Canyon of the Middle East: Wadi Ghul and Wadi Nakr in the Jebel Shams Massif in northern Oman. From…
Why target the surface synclines in the flat foreland of a fold-and-thrust belt?
Imagine an onshore petroleum province that has three proven plays and a supergiant oil field suddenly opening up for international business and exploration companies. Except, it has no modern seismic…
Steadily, Saudi Arabia keeps finding more hydrocarbons
Volumes weren’t mentioned in the press release that was issued early April, but the tone was clear nonetheless; Aramco is determined to find new volumes of oil and gas, and…
Not-so-hot volcanic rocks in Saudi Arabia
This in what a team of researchers concluded in a paper published in the journal Geothermics this year. It must have been a bit of a surprise to find very…
Oil in porous intrusive rocks
Basement plays are found in quite a few areas globally and have been well studied and reported on. Norway, Yemen, Vietnam and China are amongst those places where oil is…
A major and not-on-trend discovery in Kuwait
Kuwait is not the first country one would associate with places ramping up efforts to discover more oil. At the end of the day, the small Gulf country is home…
United Arab Emirates – unlocking the new sources of oil and gas
Eni, RakGas and SNOC have started drilling their first exploration well Fennec 1 on Onshore Block 7, Ras al Khaimah, a key project in the UAE’s energy sector. This well…
Not one, but seven new discoveries announced in Saudi Arabia
Just a couple of days ago, Reuters published a short article stating that Saudi Arabia’s energy minister announced the discovery of seven oil and gas accumulations in the country. As…
In the heart of the global economy
The Aramco compound – where most of the work is done to keep the Saudi oil machine turning – is still situated in the exact same area where the story…