Hydrocarbon Potentials in the Northern Western Desert of Egypt

The Western Desert of Egypt covers two thirds of the whole area of Egypt. The coastal basins (Matruh, Shushan, Alamein and Natrun) located in the northern half of the Western Desert 75 kilometers to the southwest of Matruh City, covering an area of about 3800 Km2 which forms the major part of the unstable shelf as defined by Said (1990). It is located northeast-southwest trending basin. This basin characterizes by its high oil and gas accumulations and its oil productivity about 45,000 BOPD from 150 producing wells in 16 oilfields, which represents more than one third of the oil production from the northern Western Desert of Egypt (EGPC, 1992).