Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, while the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.
The majority of the territory of Western Sahara – the Southern Provinces – is currently administered by the Kingdom of Morocco. As such, the majority of the economic activity of Western Sahara happens in the framework of the economy of Morocco.
Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology.
Reflection seismology is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismic source of energy, such as dynamite or Tovex blast, a specialized air gun or a seismic vibrator. Reflection seismology is similar to sonar and echolocation. This article is about surface seismic surveys; for vertical seismic profiles, see VSP.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company founded in 1924 and one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. TotalEnergies is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
Geco was a European geophysical service company specializing in seismic surveys for petroleum exploration. Starting operating in the North Sea from 1972, the company expanded to operate in most marine areas open for explorations, until Geco was incorporated into Geco-Prakla, with Schlumberger Limited as the solely owner from 1993.
Kashagan Field is an offshore oil field in Kazakhstan's zone of the Caspian Sea. The field, discovered in 2000, is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea close to Atyrau and is considered the world's largest discovery in the last 30 years, combined with the Tengiz Field. When discovered, it was the second largest oil field in the world.
Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, commonly known as OGDCL is a Pakistani oil and gas company. It has a primary listing on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, and secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. Established in 1961 by the Government of Pakistan, it was turned into a public listed company on 23 October 1997. Today it is involved in exploring, drilling, refining and selling oil and gas in Pakistan. It is the market leader in terms of reserves, production and acreage. It is based on Jinnah Avenue, Blue Area in Islamabad, with the Government of Pakistan holding 74% stake in the company. Rest are held by private investors. In 2013, it has revenue of Rs. 223.365 billion and profit before tax soaring at Rs. 90.777 billion.
SeaSeep is a combination of 2D seismic data, high resolution multibeam sonar which is an evolutionary advanced form of side-scan sonar, navigated piston coring, heat flow sampling and possibly gravity and magnetic data.
Imperial Energy Corporation plc is a British-based Government of India owned petroleum exploration and production business operating in Siberia. It is headquartered in Leeds and is a subsidiary of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Morocco's energy policy is set independently by two agencies of the government: the Office of Hydrocarbons and Mining (ONHYM)which sets domestic oil policy, and the Office National de l'Electricité (ONE), which sets policy with regard to electricity. The two major weaknesses of the energy policy of Morocco are the lack of coordination between these two agencies and the lack of development of domestic energy sources.
Isramco Negev 2 LP is an American Israeli Limited Partnership that holds interests in oil and gas properties in Israel. The partnership shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and have been a constituent of the TA-25 Index since January 2010. The partnership was founded by Isramco Inc. and other parties in 1989.
San Leon Energy plc is an independent oil and gas exploration company and is Europe's leading shale gas company by acreage. San Leon has built up a portfolio of assets located in Poland, Morocco, Western Sahara, Albania, Ireland, Spain and Italy. The company's portfolio across these geographies is made up of both conventional exploration and shale assets.
Cairn India was an Indian oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was merged with Vedanta Limited.
Kosmos Energy is an American upstream oil company founded and based in Dallas, Texas. While previously incorporated in Bermuda, Kosmos has reincorporated in Delaware. The company holds production and development operations offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and Gulf of Mexico, while holding a development project offshore Mauritania and Senegal, and exploration licenses offshore Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe and Suriname. It was previously involved in exploration offshore Morocco and Western Sahara. It discovered the Jubilee oil field off the coast of Ghana and the cross-border Tortue gas field offshore Mauritania and Senegal. Kosmos was the focus of a documentary Big Men that followed the company as it worked to establish the Jubilee oil field in Ghana.
BRS Resources, Limited was a publicly traded, international exploration and production company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada. The company is focused on building a European presence in the upstream oil and gas business, primarily natural gas production in Italy.
Cove Energy plc, also known as Cove, was a London-headquartered oil & gas exploration company with assets in East Africa. The company was created in June 2009. In 2012, following significant gas discoveries offshore Mozambique, Royal Dutch Shell and PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), a subsidiary of Thailand's national oil company PTT Public Company Limited, engaged in a prominent bidding war to acquire Cove. Ultimately, the company was sold in August 2012 to PTTEP.
Rex International Holding is an oil and gas company headquartered in Singapore. The company's main activity is in offshore oil and gas exploration and production in assets located in Oman and Norway.
Wushi Oil Field is an oil and gas field located in the South China Sea Exclusive Economic Zone, 30 miles from Zhanjiang, off the southern coast of Guangdong, China.
Soma Gas & Oil is a private oil company founded chiefly to explore natural resources in Somalia in 2013. Its registered office is in London, United Kingdom. The company is backed by Russian billionaire Alexander Djaparidze.
