The Moroccan authorities have approved Chariot Oil & Gas’ farm-out for the Rabat Deep Offshore permits.
The farm-out was between its wholly owned subsidiary, Chariot Oil & Gas Investments (Morocco) Ltd. and a wholly owned subsidiary of Eni.
Chief executive Larry Bottomley said: “We are pleased to have satisfied all conditions precedent and welcome Eni as the operator of the Rabat Deep acreage. We anticipate that further to completing the Environmental Impact Assessment, finalising well planning and securing a rig, drilling will now occur in early 2018.
“This agreement continues to demonstrate Chariot’s ability to deliver on its strategy of securing third-party validation through partnering, and we are excited that we will now take one of our priority targets through to drilling. Retaining a 10% equity interest in this well has the potential to create transformational value in the success case due to the large scale prospective resources, excellent contract commercial terms and robust economics. Success will also materially de-risk other targets we have identified within our neighbouring Mohammedia permits in which we hold a 75% interest.”
Eni has acquired operatorship and a 40% equity interest from Chariot in return for a capped carry on drilling the JP-1 prospect as well as a carry on other geological and administrative costs relating to Rabat Deep and a recovery of Chariot’s investment to date. The JP-1 prospect, which will be targeted by the RD-1 well, is a large, four-way dip closed structure of approximately 200 square km areal extent, with Jurassic carbonate primary reservoir objectives and an independently audited gross mean prospective resource estimate of 768mmbbls.