As gas demand rises and operators turn to Unconventional gas reservoirs for new supplies, the need to optimize the capacity and recovery potential from this type of reservoir has risen. These Unconventional gas reservoirs represent a vast, long-term, global source of natural gas and have not been appraised in any systematic way. Unconventional gas resources—including tight sands constitute some of the largest components of remaining natural gas resources in the Middle East and North Africa. There is an emerging focus on tight gas reservoirs in the Middle East and North Africa to feed the growing energy needs in this region and save the oil from conventional resources for export and generation of hard currencies.

The greatest challenge for tight gas is to generate economic flow, so technical capabilities are needed for effective development and production of tight gas reserves, such as mineralology/geology, geomechanics, petrophysics, well engineering, and hydraulic fracturing.

During the last decade, 3-D seismic, horizontal drilling, and improved fracture stimulation have had significant impacts on tight gas production in many basins in the Middle East and North Africa.

In this paper we will present a documentation of all the tight gas reservoirs available in the Middle East and North Africa, the challenges of developing these difficult resources, the role of modern technologies in managing tight gas and improving recovery factors, and highlight the best strategies for field development in tight gas reservoirs to capitalize on the promising potential of these reservoirs.

The objective of this paper is to prepare data base to document all the tight gas reservoirs in the Middle East and North Africa and study the impact of technology on tight gas reservoir development in the emerging region.