Yemen is trying to accelerate oil and gas concession awards and drilling by improving access to national geophysical data.
The country has hired Geonex Corp., St. Petersburg, Fla., to prepare and market a collection of geophysical maps depicting Yemen hydrocarbon potential. Available material includes satellite, topographic, and geologic maps.
Ahmed Kaid Barakat, vice minister of Yemen's ministry of oil and gas resources, said making geological and geophysical information more readily available is designed to lower front end costs for concessionaires, allowing them to accelerate exploration and drilling plans. Interest in Yemen's oil and gas potential has increased because of a series of recent discoveries, Barakat said.
Delineation of Sunah, Heijah, and Camaal fields on the 37,200 sq km Masila block by a combine led by CanadianOxy Offshore International Ltd., a subsidiary of Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd., produced an estimate of 235 million bbl of recoverable reserves (OGJ, Mar. 9, p. 49).
Other activity in Yemen included announcements this year by a group led by Lasmo plc of a production sharing contract covering a 7,395 sq km permit on Hood Block 35 in Hadramaut province and by ARCO Yemen and Shell Pecten of a farmout on North Sanau Block 12 (OGJ, Feb. 10, p. 32).
Also this year, Total gauged a flow of 12.32 MMcfd of gas and 600 b/d of oil from the 1 Janah wildcat on Jannah Block 5 in the Marib area (OGJ, Jan. 27, p. 26).
Of 37 blocks delineated by Yemen's oil and gas ministry, 14 are open to production sharing agreements or concessions.
Harold F. Flynn, Geonex chairman and chief executive officer, estimated that companies can buy the data package through his company for about 1% of the cost of individual acquisition and preparation. Geonex also will help present and interpret the information.
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