Offshore staff
LONDON – Morocco’s government has awarded Chariot Oil & Gas a 75% operated interest in the Lixus offshore license.
The other partner is state-owned Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines with a 25% carried interest.
Lixus covers a 2,390-sq km (923-sq mi) area, 30 km (18.6 mi) north of Chariot’s existing Moroccan acreage, over water depths extending from the coastline to 850 m (2,789 ft).
There had been prior exploration area with four wells drilled, includingRepsol’s 2009 Anchois gas discovery, 40 km (25 mi) offshore in 388 m (1,273 ft) water depth.
That well encountered net gas pay of 55 m (180 ft) in two sands with average porosities ranging from 25% to 28%. A new audit by consultants Netherland Sewell and Associates (NSAI) estimates a 2C resource of 307 bcf, plus prospective resources of 116 bcf in a deeper target not penetrated by the discovery well.
Anchois lies in Tertiary turbidite reservoirs and the pay sands are said to have a characteristic and anomalous seismic signature.
Chariot has identified five satellite prospects with tieback potential, three of which have been audited by NSAI. These, along with Anchois, could contain more than 900 bcf recoverable, the company claimed.
There are a further five prospects on the license with similar geological settings to Anchois but appropriate 3D data is lacking (in order to confirm a comparable anomalous seismic signature). Collectively they could hold up to 330 bcf.
Chariot plans seismic reprocessing to reduce the risk for these additional prospects and will also assess leads identified in a section below another geological feature (the Nappe) which the company believes could hold giant-scale prospective resources.
The Anchois reservoirs offers the potential for high-rate wells and a low-cost development for a country that presently is paying high gas prices, with growing energy demand, Chariot said, adding that it would look to form partnerships to help progress a development.
04/03/2019
