Yemen Sab`atayn exploration basin

The Sab’atayn Basin is one of two key petroleum provinces in Yemen, now considered to be mature – just 45 mmboe of resources were discovered over the last decade. The deteriorating political and civil situation in Yemen since 2014 has effectively brought any further new licence awards or exploration work to a halt. Oil exploration and production has seen mass disruption caused by sporadic attacks to infrastructure perpetrated by both local insurgents and Islamist militants. Despite the modest yet-to-find potential, when exploration eventually resumes Operators can expect to generate good full cycle returns by making use of the well-established infrastructure network. Due to higher levels of maturation, the Sab’atayn Basin is more gas-prone than the neighbouring Say’un – Al Masila Basin, although with the Yemen LNG project under force majeure there are no real opportunities for commercialising gas discoveries. We have therefore not included gas volumes in our Outlook.