Back on the Blog

With the busy few weeks I've just had, I have sorely neglected my little corner of the world wide web. I intend to bring everything back up to speed, but it may take a bit. To do this efficiently, I am going to give you a picture tour of what has been going on with me over the past month.

First up is tour through the Yemeni countryside. Normally, we fly and out of camp from the coastal city of Mukalla. As the flight was full, I was lucky enough to be able to drive this route. The ride takes about 2.5 hours through very dramatic scenery. Have a look below. I hope this tides you over for the next set of pictures coming in a couple of days.

Archeological Find

About a month and a 1/2 ago, one of the dozers prepping wellsite uncovered two stone artifacts. Below is the write-up in the company newsletter. The artifacts were found within about 1/2 km from camp.

"On Tuesday, March 21, 2006, while routine construction work was being performed at the BAK-A 07 well site and materials being excavated from the area near the base of the Jebel, about 2 km from the BAK-PF facility, one of the workers noticed that two rocks were of an unusual shape and size. Upon closer investigation he discovered two interesting archaeological artifacts.

CNPE site management immediately gave instruction to remove all construction equipment from the site and shut down the work until a further investigation could be performed by the Sayun Archaeologist.

Two archaeological artifacts were found. One is about 75 cm long, 35 cm wide and 15 cm thick, weighing about 20 kilograms. The second find is about 60 cm long, 35 cm wide and 15 cm thick, also weighing about 20 kilograms.

Dr. Abdull-Rahman Al Sakkaf, General Manager of the Organization of Antique and Museum in Sayun, said that these artifacts are from the Bronze Age (2,500 B.C.) and that there are a limited number of thes artifacts in the Mukalla Museum and only on artifact in the Sayun Museum. He added that theartifacts are important because they have been found in the southern part of the Arabic Peninsula and that similar artifacts have been found in Europe, giving indications that there was communication between the civilizations during the Bronze Age.

Dr. Al Sakkaf informed CNPE that they are very pleased with this discovery and with the action of our employees and they will be sending a letter of appreciation."