Chariot has upgraded the amount of gas it believes may be under its licence offshore Morocco, following the drilling of the Anchois-2 well.
Netherland Sewell & Associates (NSAI) prepared an assessment on Anchois and various other exploration prospects in the Lixus and Rissana licences.
“We remain fully focused on bringing Anchois into production as quickly as possible and are working hard across all aspects of the development plan required to reach [final investment decision] FID,” said Chariot’s Duncan Wallace. “We are committed to realising the value of this gas field as well as continuing to prove up the significant scope of our wider resource base from the Moroccan portfolio.”
In addition to the Anchois development, the company is also talking of exploration, with an eye on supplying Moroccan demand – and potentially Europe.
NSAI upgraded the 1C contingent resource at Anchois to 365 billion cubic feet, from 201 bcf, an 82% increase. It boosted the 2C resource to 637 bcf, up 76%. The consultants put the total recoverable resource at 1.4 tcf.
NSAI also gave updated assessments on two undrilled prospects, Maquereau and Anchois West, in addition to the new Anguille prospect. These are all in the same tertiary gas play as Anchois.
Meanwhile, on Rissana, NSAI gave a total prospective resource of more than 7 tcf. This includes a higher risk Mesozoic play, which has prospects that may hold multiple tcf.
Growing demand
Wallace said the assessment showed “a growing resource base from which we can fast track our gas development towards material cashflows and provide gas to meet Morocco’s growing energy demand”.
Chariot has a 75% stake in the Lixus licence. This covers 1,794 square km, in water depths ranging up to 850 metres. The original Anchois discovery was drilled in 2009. Chariot drilled its Anchois-2 in the first quarter of this year.
Schlumberger and Subsea 7 are working on the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the offshore gas project. Société Générale is leading the debt financing.