Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Company (Ganope) has postponed the Red Sea exploration and production (E&P) bid round to Q1 2019, a source at the company told Al Borsa.

Bidding was originally planned to open in December 2018, but the company has decided to delay it until all required approvals are obtained, according to the source.

Launching the bid round comes as a result of the geophysical data collection project conducted by Ganope and Schlumberger.

The 2D seismic survey was conducted over a 10,000 square kilometer area in the Red Sea at a cost of around $750 million.