EUG: Leveraging digitalization to unlock Egypt’s Basins Potential

EUG: Leveraging digitalization to unlock Egypt’s Basins Potential

For the past four years, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum has been reaping the fruits of the ambitious modernization project that was launched in 2016. Under the leadership of H.E. Eng. Tarek El Molla, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, this unique overhaul transformation project was designed to unlock the petroleum sector’s potential to further increase its contribution in Egypt’s economic growth.

 

Exploration and production activities were at the heart of the modernization project, with dedicated teams working on innovative approaches to attract new investors to the market under the support of Geo. Ashraf Farag, First Undersecretary for Agreements and Exploration for the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.


EUG review meeting between H.E. Eng Tarek El Molla; Geo Ashraf Farag, First Undersecretary for Agreements and Exploration, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; and Schlumberger representatives. Note: This photo was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak

 

The team successfully worked on a project that aims to digitally promote Egypt’s oil and gas bid rounds through seamless online access to the sector’s data. The Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG) is a unique national project for digitizing subsurface information and delivering a digital subsurface platform to ensure Egypt’s reservoir data is kept evergreen. It will also promote Egypt’s exploration and production potential worldwide.


EUG committee team members from EGPC, EGAS, and Ganope.
From left to right: Geo. Rana Abdel Hakim, Geo. Rehab Atef, Eng. Eman Fahmy, Aml Adam, Geo. Mohamed Saber, Geo. Mostafa Abdelghaffar, Eng. Inas Osman, Eng. Dawlat Hashem, Geo. Mohamed Radwan, Geo. Salah Khaled, Geo. Alaa El Batal, Eng. Nabil Salah, Eng. Ahmed Elsaeed, Eng. Walid Elaasar, Eng. Hany Shaker, Dr. Samir Raslan, Geo. Mahmoud Elsaber, Geo. Mahmoud Abdelsalam, Geo. Karim Ali, Geo. Mahmoud Rashed, and Geo. Nader Labib.
Note: This photo was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak

 

In February 2017, the team started the technology sessions with key upstream technology providers, and in November 2018, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) launched the EUG tender. By February 2019, EGPC received offers from the bidders. After conducting a thorough evaluation process, the team reached the project award decision in November 2019.

During EGYPS 2020, an agreement was signed between EGPC (EGPC, EGAS, and Ganope) and Schlumberger. The agreement was signed by Eng. Abed Ezz El Regal, CEO of EGPC, and Karim Badawi, Schlumberger Egypt Managing Director, and was witnessed by H.E. Eng. Tarek El Molla. EGPC and Schlumberger will collaborate to form a world-class National Data Repository (NDR) for Egypt that will preserve, develop, promote, and maximize the value of the country’s natural resources data, particularly data related to the petroleum E&P sector.


EUG signature ceremony at EGYPS 2020

 

“The Egypt Upstream Gateway will provide a platform to attract new investments to Egypt from around the world through state-of-the-art digital enablement of bid rounds. EUG reflects the Ministry’s progressive vision for digitalization and will be a key enabler in positioning Egypt as a modern East Mediterranean hub,” said H.E Engineer Tarek El Molla- Minister of Petroleum and Mineral resources.


EUG signature ceremony at EGYPS 2020.

 

One of the main pillars of the Gateway is “evergreening,” defined as supporting regional geological, geophysical, and petrophysical studies to use data to both address current E&P subsurface challenges and to renovate existing assets for further E&P progress. Access to evergreen data helps accelerate decision making and reduce exploration turnaround time for operators more efficiently than ever before. Similarly, prospecting and licensing rounds are enhanced as the availability of quality data is continually improved. With this step, Egypt joins the league of countries that have NDRs and can effectively compete in the global energy E&P sector.

The EUG is implementing the latest Schlumberger digital technologies and solutions, such as the underlying technology for the EUG web portal and the GAIA* digital subsurface platform. Using the power of the DELFI* cognitive E&P environment, the GAIA platform integrates all relevant data and workflows into a personalized data discovery experience that accelerates energy discovery and increases production. All relevant cross-domain data, including seismic, well and production logs, subsurface measurements, basin history, documents, and reports, are quickly accessible. Oil and gas companies can subscribe via membership levels depending on their business needs and interests.

Olivier Le Peuch, CEO of Schlumberger, added that “the EUG will significantly enhance the traditional NDR solution by digitalizing all the subsurface information and putting data at your fingertips anytime, anywhere—securely. The Gateway will accelerate energy discovery, enable collaboration anywhere around the world, and spark new investment. This is a giant step in digital modernization of core processes in our industry.”


EUG Joint Operating Committee. From left to right: Ayman Shabrawi, Salah Khaled, Samir Zedira, Adel Samaha ,Karim Badawi, Mohamed Radwan, and Ahmed Sameh.

 

“Schlumberger combines deep domain expertise with transformative digital technologies using the GAIA platform, which will enable us to enrich Egypt’s subsurface data and deliver the EUG. This industry-first platform will accelerate Egypt’s discoveries, reduce uncertainty, mitigate risks, and enable Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and its affiliates—EGPC, EGAS, and Ganope—to digitally showcase their assets to investors worldwide,” said Maurice Nessim, President of WesternGeco®, Schlumberger.

On 13 May 2020, H.E. Eng. Tarek El Molla issued a ministerial decree assigning Geo. Alaa El Batal and Geo. Salah Khaled as members of the Executive Joint Operating Committee and Geo. Mohamed Said Radwan as the EUG project manager representing EGPC. With Geo. El Batal’s recent appointment as Ganope Chairman, Geo. Adel Samaha will succeed him in the EUG Executive Joint Operating Committee. From Schlumberger, the ministerial decree assigns Karim Badawi and Ayman Shabrawi as members of the Executive Joint Operating Committee and Ahmed Sameh as the EUG project manager representing Schlumberger as EGPC partner. Both project managers will join forces to lead the project operations and cooperate with EUG members regarding data licensing and gateway accessibility.

Egypt continues to have significant and promising oil and gas potential, and through the Egypt Upstream Gateway, it aspires to attract more investors to the market and achieve new discoveries in different basins to boost production.

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