The Land That Oil Forgot: Palestine, 1913–1948
Israeli premier Golda Meir once said, “Moses took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no…
Middle East
Oman’s Musandam Peninsula: Geodynamic and Geopolitical Nexus
Admire soaring, fjord-like walls of Mesozoic limestone as you glide through the Strait of Hormuz by dhow, the type of traditional wooden ships that today share this strategic waterway with…
Great Hydrocarbon Potential in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah
Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) is the northernmost Emirate of the UAE and borders the Musandam Peninsula, the Omani exclave that protrudes into the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The Emirate is…
Sercel Deploys WiNG for Seismic Acquisition in Turkey
Sercel’s WiNG technology, a fully integrated nodal land acquisition system, will be used for upcoming seismic acquisition projects in difficult-to-access mountainous areas of Turkey. Leading designer and manufacturer of innovative…
The Khoshtaria Concessions: Oil and the Northern Provinces of Iran
As ever, international interests were at the heart of the intrigue around the awarding and operating of oil and gas concessions in the north of Iran. In a region rich…
Sercel Deploys Leading Land Seismic Acquisition Technology in Saudi Arabia
Sercel recently announced the large-scale deployment of its leading seismic data acquisition technology, the Sercel 508XT, for a mega-crew survey currently being conducted by Sinopec Geophysical Co. With over 50…
The Leviathan Gas Field: First Gas Delivery & Exports
Leviathan, the giant Israeli gas field discovered by Noble Energy in 2010, delivered its first gas to the Israeli domestic market in December 2019, with the first exports, to Egypt…
What is the Saudi Aramco IPO?
Saudi Arabia’s leadership recently floated part of its giant state oil company, Saudi Aramco, on the Saudi stock exchange, selling shares in what was the biggest IPO (Initial Public Offering)…
The Dead Sea transform: the Master Sculptor
The history of the world’s three great monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – has unfolded in the so-called Holy Land, a starkly rugged landscape that stretches from the…
Shale Plays of the Middle East
The Middle East is best known for its conventional oil and gas reserves, which have been a critical part of the world’s supply for nearly a century. Could the US…
Exploration Update: Significant Gas Discovery Offshore Israel
International oil and gas exploration and production company, Energean, make gas discovery offshore Israel at Karish North in the Levantine Basin. Source: Energean. The recent run of large gas discoveries…
Mr. Five Per Cent: Calouste Gulbenkian
Intensely secretive, for more than half a century Gulbenkian personally controlled five per cent of Middle East oil production and shaped the firms we know as Shell and Total. The…