Egypt: EGPC licensing round blocks

The North Umbarka Block lies on the Mediterranean coast just north of the Umbarka and Khalda fields operated by Apache Oil Corporation through its Khalda joint venture with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). Five concessionaires have previously held parts of the block and between them drilled 34 wells between 1967 and 2014, all of which were temporarily or permanently abandoned. A total of nine wells produced gas or oil shows or were deemed worthy of further study. The concessionaires also carried out five 2D and 3D seismic surveys over the past 23 years. These include Vegas (1993), IEOC (1998) Shell (1998), Apache (2007) and Hellenic (2008).