A full Burlington House enjoyed 3 days of exciting Eastern Mediterranean hydrocarbon prospectivity, as well as superb descriptions of complex regional tectonics and fascinating seabed geomorphology. The conference brought together experts from the industry, government, academia and seismic companies. The first morning was dedicated to the regional setting and tectonic evolution with various models presented. Numerous case studies and new data provided insights and analogues for this underexplored and emerging oil and gas province.
Prof. Jenkyns pointed us to the source rock intervals around the region that underpin conventional plays. A challenge to the conventional Triassic evolution of the Med was made by T. Bevan who pieced his tectonic jigsaw together using a Cretaceous opening model. Microbial gas featured strongly, with plays presented from Sicily and most notably from the Levant by M. Gardosh in his excellent keynote on the recent large gas discoveries Offshore Israel. In addition to a tantalising seismic fieldtrip of the region by D. Peace, there were presentations on offshore Cyprus, Syria and the Lebanon completing this picture. Other regions brought to life were the Italian basins, the Adriatic and offshore Libya. Turbidite sand provenance was another key theme, ranging from recent drainage analyses of onshore North Africa by D. McGregor to direct seismic based mapping of systems in Offshore Egypt by N. Abdullayev on the region, and J. Saxon who described how these systems created the Raven gas field.
A record attendance of 220 delegates highlights the interest in the region. The group discussion on the last day laid the foundation for the future advancements in exploring this fascinating region.