The different phases of the oil and gas exploration process are along the following lines: A country publishes a competitive licensing round process where licensing blocks are offered to competing bidders; Individual companies or groups of joint ventures may apply for an E&P license. Usually, the licensing authority will assess the applicants based on the scope and quality of their proposed work program as well as on their financial capacity to undertake the activities required; The company that wins a licensing block then undertakes within a certain time frame to carry out a 2-D seismic survey to assess new leads in the relatively large area of the awarded block; The 2D seismic data is then processed and interpreted. At this stage, relinquishment is often required by the O&G Company back to the licensing authority of part of the less interesting area whilst the most prospective areas are identified and maintained for further focus; The shooting of 3D is carried out to further define and de-risk the lead into a prospect for drilling. Companies will most likely however only carry out 3D surveys if at this stage they have an exclusive license; A prospect has been identified and fully evaluated and if the geological proposal meets the company’s business criteria for development, an analysis is carried out which will include such issues as the cost of development, minimum reserves necessary to ensure a successful well development at that depth, the price of oil/gas that can be fetched in the specific market place, the tax regime, the legislative environment, etc.; After the business case has been completed, equity funds will be obtained from management or financing from a special finance vehicle and an exploration drilling will take place to determine whether hydrocarbons are present; Usually a well is drilled which may last 30-40 days and electric logs are run immediately down the drill hole a process that takes about 3 days. The electric logs provide an 85% certainty as to whether there is potential for oil and gas and potential for the existence of a reservoir. This phase, however, needs to be followed by a fuller examination of the data, including especially of the fluid in the reservoir. This is carried out by a drill string test in the open hole to take a mud sampling out from the contents of the reservoir to the surface and examine the sample for the presence of oil and/or gas. This process takes another 7-15 days to complete. The drill stem test would be carried out by a reservoir engineer and the electric logs would be carried out by a petro-physicist. Once the exploration drilling has been done, appraisal needs to be carried out in a number of wells to determine their true potential. Following this, a plan of development is put forward by the O&G Company which needs to be accepted by the authorities. Then, detailed design and construction is undertaken by specialized development companies on behalf of the E&P Company and production is then finally carried out if a market has been determined for the hydrocarbons. This latter point is not an issue in so far as oil is concerned since oil is easily traded on the global market and in fact there is more trade internationally in oil than in anything else. In so far as natural gas is concerned, availability of a market place needs to be determined a priori. In addition, field development has to be carried out in such a manner as to balance the long term desire to maximize reserves with the necessity to derive a reasonable rate of return for the investment.