oa “Brighter than the Moon” - Illuminating the Hydrocarbon Prospectivity in the South Rub' Al Khali Basin

The South Rub Al-Khali Company Ltd is an Incorporated Joint Venture between Shell Saudi Ventures<br>Limited (50%) and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (50%) and was set up in order to explore for nonassociated<br>gas in the South Rub ‘al Khali Basin as part of the Natural Gas Initiative in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.<br>In order to achieve its objectives within the timeframe of the First Exploration Period, a play-based<br>rather than prospect-based exploration strategy had been devised during the start-up of the Venture to<br>maximise the chances of identifying working hydrocarbon systems and to optimally position the<br>Company for a Second Exploration Period.<br>This encompassed a two pronged approach pursuing pre-Khuff Formation sweet gas prospectivity in<br>SRAK’s Contract Area 2 in Southwest Saudi Arabia and Khuff and Arab Formation sour gas<br>prospectivity in SRAK’s Contract Area 1 in Southeast Saudi Arabia. A concerted Technology effort was<br>made to help polarize drilling opportunities.<br>As SRAK’s First Exploration Period is drawing to a close in mid-2010, this paper will summarise the<br>exploration results, review how the exploration strategy evolved through time in response to early<br>exploration results and distill learnings applicable to similar frontier exploration ventures elsewhere.