Egypt's EGAS to conduct Mediterranean's largest seismic exploration project

Egypt's state-owned gas company EGAS will carry out the largest seismic oil and gas exploration project in the Mediterranean, seeking data that could attract global exploration companies, it said on Thursday.

EGAS said it has signed a deal with Norwegian seismic surveyor PGS to conduct two and three-dimensional scans in the western zone of Egypt's territorial Mediterranean waters. It did not mention the value of the deal.

Seismic explorers search for oil and gas deposits under the sea by bouncing sound waves off rock from cables towed across the water.

The deal is part of a plan to increase Egypt's domestic production of natural gas by intensifying search and exploration operations as well as conducting international auctions in areas that have not been explored previously, head of EGAS Khaled Abdel Badie said in a statement.

About 80 percent of Egyptian natural gas reserves are in the eastern and central zones of Egypt's territorial waters in the Mediterranean, where exploration traditionally takes place, he said.