JEDDAH: Saudi Aramco awarded two contracts to Saudi Arabia's Shoaibi Group to search for oil and gas in the Red Sea. The Group and its international partners started in February to survey parts of the Red Sea, the company said Wednesday. The contracts are with UK's ARKeX and Norway's Electromagnetic GeoServices AS. Shoaibi and its partners will need until the end of the second quarter to complete the exploration and data-compilation work. The company didn't disclose the value of the contracts. “We are excited that these technologies have been selected by Saudi Aramco to enhance their understanding of the potential reservoirs in their Red Sea exploration program,” Shaoibi said. Saudi Aramco plans to produce natural gas this decade off the Red Sea coast to increase domestic supplies to power- generation and water-desalination plants. “We're exploring very aggressively in the Red Sea,” Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih said last December. Shoaibi Group has formed other joint ventures to be based in Al-Khobar with international geophysical and seismic surveying services companies. It formed two joint ventures last year, one with Global Geophysical Services, the other with Norway's Petroleum Geo-Services Co., known as PGS, to provide seismic services in Saudi Arabia. The group is also forming ventures with international gas services companies as Aramco expands its gas
