Bringing together science, innovative technology, industry, and intense field work characterizes the visionary work of the members of the Suez University Student Chapter (Egypt). Welcome to an interview and a series of gorgeous photos that are sure to inspire.

What is your name and what is your connection to geology and the oil industry?

We are AAPG Suez University Student Chapter (AAPG SUSC), one of the active student chapters in AAPG founded in 2008 at the faculty of petroleum and mining engineering- Suez University, regarded as the best student activity in the University and outstanding student chapter in 2015.

We always promote student involvement in the work life related to geology and petroleum engineering industry to guarantee achieving the vision of AAPG international which is advancing the world of petroleum geoscience.

What are some of the most exciting developments in the oil industry in Egypt?

One of the most exciting developments of petroleum industry in Egypt is exploring Zohr field which is an offshore natural gas field located in the Egyptian sector of the Mediterranean sea in 2013 by Eni. Petrobel Company stated that plans for Egypt’s giant Zohr field include the drilling and continuation of 20 wells as well as the installation of 20 deep wellheads underwater. Egypt has signed a deal with Aramco stipulating that the Saudi company would supply Egypt with petroleum products for five years, also south Abu Zenima Petroleum Company (Petro zenima) has been established as a joint venture company between Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and National Petroleum company (NPC) to carry out Muzhil field development by drilling 8 wells.

We - as being AAPG Suez - are always eager to keep up with latest developments in the oil and gas industry by continuous connection with the largest petroleum companies in Egypt such as Apache, Shell, BP, Shlumberger, Kuwait Energy and others.

What is PetroPulse and what are its goals and its ultimate vision?

PetroPulse is our technical magazine as AAPG Suez which includes technical articles written by professional petroleum engineers and geologists in addition to interviews with leaders in petroleum industry from all over the world to provide students with a huge amount of knowledge about petroleum field. Until now we published 5 issues and we would be grateful to give them a look on our website: http://www.aapgsuez.net/Magazine.php.

Our magazine is usually sponsored by the largest petroleum corporations, distributed all over petroleum companies in Egypt and shared among engineers.Our main sponsor for this season is Kuwait Energy Egypt Petroleum Company.

Our ultimate vision is to build a reputable magazine whose watchword is professionalism and to reach the maximum level of petroleum knowledge through PetroPulse.

Please describe three or four new areas of technology that are transforming the oil industry in your region?

First, the deepwater gas projects at Eni’s Zohr field and BP’s West Nile Delta Phase 1 development remain on track to produce first gas in 2017. With $24 billion being invested across both developments, Egypt has brought in major contracts for the likes of Subsea 7, One Subsea, and Aker Solutions at a time when other markets have been severely depressed.

Second, the recent awards of onshore acreage to Apache, BP, Shell, and Apex with apparent government concessions on the cost recovery mechanisms and relinquishment rules, demonstrated that the country’s onshore oil production prospects remain positive.

Thirdly, thanks largely to the impact of Siemens-led power production projects, Egypt now has moved into a healthy position of surplus power capacity.

How are analytics and new modeling / imaging techniques improving the understanding of regional geology?

Sub-salt imaging on seismic data is a serious geophysical problem affecting exploration in the Gulf of Suez. Here, thick Miocene evaporite, shale and salt sequences with salt tectonics overlie rift structures involving pre-Miocene and Miocene oil-producing formations. GUPCO (BP Jv.) has provided a better understanding and possible solution to the imaging problem. A realistic model for the Gulf was used to generate synthetic shot records using finite difference modelling. Processing of the simulated data in conjunction with actual field data led to improved understanding of the wave propagation behaviour in the subsurface, and to a realization of the validity of the common midpoint stacking technique and post-stack depth migration.

Truly broadband data bring high resolution and layer differentiation. The reduced sidelobes create sharper wavelets for greater clarity. The six octaves of data recorded by BroadSeisTM provide high resolution shallow data as well as low frequencies for subsalt penetration. In order to achieve sufficient bandwidth in areas where high frequencies are limited, it is necessary to extend the low frequencies. Lower frequencies are affected less by attenuation, and provide greater accuracy and stability for seismic inversion.

Seismic methods in the Gulf are handicapped by problems attributed to wave propagation through the shallower South Gharib Salt and post-salt Zeit formations. These problems have historically been perceived to be:

1. Significant refraction (ray bending) occurs at the top and bottom of the high-velocity salt. Swells in the thickness of the salt displace subsalt reflection points laterally away from their ideal position beneath the source-detector midpoints, thus invalidating current common-midpoint stacking methods.
2. The Zeit formation consists of a thick, cyclic sequence of thin-bedded anhydrites, shales, and salts. The reflection coefficients within this sequence are large so the transmission coefficients are small. Thus, the seismic wavelet experiences severe attenuation and distortion as it traverses this sequence.
3. Strong pegleg multiples are generated during transmission through the Zeit formation. These multiple wavetrains are parallel to primaries and are immune to current deconvolution and velocity-filtering methods.

Please add any other topic you'd like to discuss.

We know that all student activities of AAPG try to promote students with geological knowledge, how are you distinct?

Being members in AAPG Suez inspires us to develop ourselves.

Our academic studies and classes are not sufficient to build qualified petroleum engineers. But through technical courses, sessions and field trainings held by AAPG Suez in cooperation with some of the largest companies in Egypt effectively help us to reduce the gap between technical study and work life, which is the main vision of AAPG.

In addition to enhancing technical Knowledge, we acquire a lot of skills that make us ready to face job market challenges. AAPG Suez executive committee always sets high standards, and works hard to reach them by complete development program and strong action plan that is usually supported by AAPG international.

We are very pleased to be a part of such a great international powerful Entity and our prolonged dream to be always an outstanding chapter of AAPG.