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The promotion of the oil potential of the sedimentary basins is bearing fruit. The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) has announced the signing of the first oil agreement of the year with the British company Predator Gas Ventures Limited.
This is one of the 13 companies that benefited in 2018 from door-to-door campaigns and meetings organized by the Office in the United Kingdom and the United States. The other firms approached are CNPC, Europa Oil & Gas, SDX Energy, Hunt Oil, Total, Anadarko, Cairn Energy, Angel Rose, Shell, Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Chariot Oil & Gas.
This new partnership with Predator Gas Ventures Limited covers the Guercif Onshore area in the Oriental region. A site that adjoins Tendrara where the gas potential is confirmed. “The work planned during the initial period of the research permits consists of reprocessing the 2D seismic data, the drilling of an exploration well and geological and geophysical work,” says ONHYM.
Predator Gas Ventures Limited is a British company specializing in hydrocarbon research. This is the first time that it operates in Africa. It conducts exploration projects offshore Ireland and onshore Trinidad in Cuba.
Another company has just invested in oil drilling. This is Qatar Petroleum which has entered into a farm-out agreement with ENI on the twelve licenses located in the Tarfaya Offshore Shallow area. An announcement that was made public on March 13th. Under this agreement and subject to regulatory approvals, the Italian oil major ENI, which initially holds 75% of the permits, gives this new entrant 30% of its interest and keeps 45% while remaining the operator. . Nothing will change however for the ONHYM which holds 25% of said permits.
“The signing of this agreement is part of Qatar Petroleum’s exploration strategy for basins with hydrocarbon potential. It is also the pledge of strengthening relations between the State of Qatar, the national company Qatar Petroleum and the Kingdom of Morocco,” says the Office.
In 2019, Amina Benkhadra’s teams continue to promote sedimentary basins with international oil companies. Objective: to attract new partners to develop petroleum research. And for good reason, the national potential remains under-exploited. Requiring heavy and risky investments, this strategic sector still can not attract major oil companies, insists Amina Benkhadra, CEO of ONHYM.
The year 2018 was marked by the signing of three new oil agreements with the companies Repsol and Shell, on the Tanfit zone, Sound Energy and Schlumberger on the Grand Tendrara zone and Sound Energy, on the Sidi Moktar Onshore zone. For 2019, ONHYM’s partners plan to drill nine wells on Rharb Occidental, Lalla Mimouna, Grand Tendrara, Haha Onshore and Tendrara concessions.
