“The Shorouk area had been held by another operator (actually Shell, a big major) for ten years, during which nine wells were drilled without commercial results. How is it possible that they didn’t see the “big potato”?
The explanation of ENI’s explorers is that they were looking for a different geological game, a classic of the Nile Delta (Miocene sands), not the sea-mount carbonate variety…See: Zohr: The Making Of A Mega Discovery