U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2010–3119

December 2010

World Petroleum Resources Project

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources 

of the Red Sea Basin Province

Printed on recycled paper

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of 5 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 112 trillion 

cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Red Sea Basin Province using a geology-based assessment methodology.

Composite Total Petroleum System 

and Assessment Units

For this assessment, the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite 

Total Petroleum System is defined to include the possibility of 

petroleum being sourced from organic-rich rocks of Late Jurassic, 

Late Cretaceous, early and middle Miocene, and Pliocene ages, 

all of which are interpreted as potential source rocks within the 

Red Sea Basin Province (Cole and others, 1995; Lindquist, 1999). 

This composite total petroleum system is defined to encompass 

all petroleum fluids and mixtures of these fluids in the province 

because genetic families of oils or gases could not be completely 

discriminated based on available geochemical data.

The geologic definition of AUs within the petroleum 

system directly relates to the tectonic evolution of the Red Sea 

Basin Province (Richardson and Arthur, 1988; Salah and Alsharhan, 

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the 

undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the 

Red Sea Basin Province as part of a program to assess the recoverable oil and gas resources of priority basins around the world. 

The Red Sea Basin Province encompasses the Red Sea, Gulf of 

Suez, Gulf of Aqaba, and adjacent coastal areas (fig. 1), an area 

of about 486,000 square kilometers. The province includes parts 

of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. This 

assessment was based on published geologic information and on 

commercial data from oil and gas wells, fields, and field production. The USGS approach is to define petroleum systems and 

geologic assessment units (AU) and to assess the potential for 

undiscovered oil and gas resources in each of the five AUs defined 

for this study.

Figure 1.  Location of the Red Sea Basin Province.

1996; Younes and McClay, 2002; 

Ehrhardt and others, 2005; Khalil 

and McClay, 2009). In the late 

Oligocene-early Miocene, rifting 

began between the Arabian and 

African tectonic plates, leading to 

opening of the Gulf of Suez, Red 

Sea, and Gulf of Aqaba. Rifting 

through the Miocene led to the 

deposition of several thousand 

meters of syn-rift sediments that 

eventually became petroleum 

source rocks, reservoirs, seals, 

and traps. In mid-Miocene, rifting 

ceased in the Gulf of Suez—the 

structural regime of the Gulf of 

Aqaba changed from extension 

to strike-slip motion, and the 

Red Sea continued to open as the 

Arabian plate moved counterclockwise away from the African 

plate. Thick evaporite deposits 

formed during the late Miocene 

across much of the Red Sea Basin. 

Seafloor spreading commenced 

about 4 Ma (Pliocene) in the 

southern Red Sea area.

DJIBOU

KUW

S u d a n

EGYPT

SUDAN

ERITREA

ETHIOPIA

DJIBOUTI

YEMEN

SAUDI ARABIA

JORDAN IRAQ

IRAN

KUWAIT

BAHRAIN

ISRAEL

RED SEA

GULF OF ADEN

GULF OF AQABA PERSIAN

GULF

GULF OF SUEZ

28°E 30°E 32°E 34°E 36°E 38°E 40°E 42°E 44°E 46°E 48°E 50°E

30°N

28°N

26°N

24°N

22°N

20°N

18°N

16°N

14°N

12°N

 Assessment area

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

INDIAN OCEAN

ARABIAN

A F R I C A SEA

SAUDI

ARABIA

IRAN IRAQ

0 100 200 MILES

0 100 200 KILOMETERS

EXPLANATION

Red Sea Basin 

 Province Boundary
Five AUs defined geologically in this study reflect the 

structures formed during these tectonic events—Gulf of Suez 

AU, Gulf of Aqaba AU, Red Sea Coastal Fault Blocks AU, 

Red Sea Salt Basins AU, and Red Sea Axial Rifts AU. The 

Gulf of Suez AU includes all extensional structures with the 

potential for containing pre-rift and syn-rift source and reservoir rocks. The Gulf of Aqaba AU includes all rift structures 

that might have been inverted as the Gulf of Aqaba changed 

from extension to transform motion in the middle Miocene. 

The Red Sea Coastal Fault Blocks AU encompasses all extensional structures with syn-rift source, reservoir, and seal rocks. 

The Red Sea Salt Basins AU includes all extensional and saltrelated structures in the Red Sea. The Red Sea Axial Rifts AU 

includes all extensional structures in the axial part of the Red 

Sea, with Pliocene source and reservoir rocks.

Resource Summary

Estimates of volumes of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources are shown in table 1. The mean of the 

distribution for undiscovered oil is 5,041 million barrels of oil 

(MMBO), with a range from 1,978 MMBO to 9,810 MMBO. For 

undiscovered gas, the total mean volume is 112,349 billion cubic 

feet of gas (BCFG), with a range from 52,140 BCFG to 201,182 

BCFG. About 80 percent of the mean undiscovered oil and more 

than 90 percent of the undiscovered gas are estimated to be in the 

Red Sea Coastal Fault Blocks AU and Red Sea Salt Basins AU 

(table 1). For this assessment, a minimum undiscovered field size 

of 5 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) was used for all 

assessment units. These estimates represent technically recoverable 

oil and gas resources; no attempt was made to estimate economically recoverable resources.

References Cited

Cole, G.A., Abu-Ali, M.A., Colling, E.L., Halpern, H.I., Carrigan, 

W.J., Savage, G.R., Scolaro, R.J., and Al-Sharidi, S.H., 1995, 

Petroleum geochemistry of the Midyan and Jaizan basins of the 

Red Sea, Saudi Arabia: Marine and Petroleum Geology, v. 12, 

no. 6, p. 597–614.

Ehrhardt, Axel, Hübscher, Christian, and Gajewski, Dirk, 2005, 

Conrad Deep, northern Red Sea: development of an early stage 

ocean deep within the axial depression: Tectonophysics, v. 411, 

p. 19–40.

Khalil, S.M., and McClay, K.R., 2009, Structural control on syn-rift 

sedimentation, northwestern Red Sea margin, Egypt: Marine and 

Petroleum Geology, v. 26, no. 6, p. 1018–1034.

Lindquist, S.J., 1999, The Red Sea Basin Province: Sudr-Nubia(!) 

and Maqna(!) Petroleum Systems: U.S. Geological Survey 

Open-File Report 99–50–A, 21p.

Richardson, Mark, and Arthur, M.A., 1988, The Gulf of Suez—

northern Red Sea Neogene rift: a quantitative basin analysis: 

Marine and Petroleum Geology, v. 5, no. 3, p. 247–270.

Salah, M.G., and Alsharhan, A.S., 1996, Structural influence on 

hydrocarbon entrapment in the northwestern Red Sea, Egypt: 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 80, 

no. 1, p. 101–118.

Younes, A.I., and McClay, Ken, 2002, Development of accommodation zones in the Gulf of Suez-Red Sea rift, Egypt: American 

Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 86, no. 6, 

p. 1003–1026.

Table 1. Red Sea Basin Province assessment results.

[MMBO, million barrels of oil. BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas. MMBNGL, million barrels of natural gas liquids. Results shown are fully risked estimates. For gas accumulations, 

all liquids are included as NGL (natural gas liquids). Undiscovered gas resources are the sum of nonassociated and associated gas. F95 represents a 95 percent chance of at least the 

amount tabulated; other fractiles are defined similarly. Largest expected oil field in MMBO; largest expected gas field in BCFG. TPS, total petroleum system; AU, assessment unit. 

Gray shading indicates not applicable]

Total Petroleum System 

(TPS) and 

Assessment Units (AU)

Field

type

Largest

expected mean

field size

Total undiscovered resources

Oil (MMBO) Gas (BCFG) NGL (MMBNGL)

F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean

Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite Total Petroleum System

Gulf of Suez AU Oil 127 309 610 1,120 649 305 654 1,392 727 14 30 67 34

Gas 126 22 97 599 177 1 6 39 11

Gulf of Aqaba AU Oil 143 35 149 752 237 28 144 860 264 1 6 41 12

Gas 862 211 896 4,484 1,426 13 57 295 93

Red Sea Coastal Fault

Blocks AU

Oil 237 530 1,156 2,313 1,254 696 1,721 4,025 1,960 18 46 111 53

Gas 2,158 10,567 20,570 38,281 21,951 278 548 1,025 585

Red Sea Salt Basins AU Oil 585 1,065 2,502 5,171 2,731 1,426 3,681 9,029 4,270 38 99 248 115

Gas 6,414 36,967 71,538 131,599 76,215 977 1,906 3,517 2,031

Red Sea Axial Rifts AU Oil 93 39 124 454 170 39 166 799 265 1 4 22 7

Gas 1,349 1,879 4,572 10,114 5,094 49 121 275 136

Total Conventional Resources 1,978 4,541 9,810 5,041 52,140 104,039 201,182 112,349 1,390 2,823 5,640 3,077

For Further Information

A publication detailing the geology and the methodology for 

the Red Sea Basin Province assessment is in progress. Assessment 

results are available at the USGS Energy Resources Program 

website, http://energy.cr.usgs.gov.

Red Sea Basin Province Assessment Team: 

Christopher J. Schenk (schenk@usgs.gov), 

Ronald R. Charpentier, Timothy R. Klett, 

Michael E. Brownfield, Mark A. Kirschbaum, 

Janet K. Pitman, Troy A. Cook, and Marilyn E. Tennyson.