Chariot Oil and Gas has announced that it has entered into a farm-out agreement with Eni where the latter will acquire a 40% equity interest and operatorship, in the Rabat Deep Offshore exploration permits I-VI, offshore Morocco,Eni is to acquire this, in exchange for a carry on Chariot’s share of drilling expenditures on the JP-1 prospect.

Under the agreement, the company will also carry Chariot’s administrative and geological costs related with works in the forthcoming licensing period of Rabat Deep and partly cover formerly made investments in the offshore project to date, to be used for the continued development of Chariot’s portfolio.

The Rabat Deep Offshore licence area is situated about 30km offshore Morocco, in water depths from 150m to 3,500m. Following a comprehensive processing and interpretation of 3D seismic data, the JP-1 prospect has been defined as a huge, four-way dip closed structure of about 200 km² areal extent, with Jurassic carbonate primary reservoir objectives.

According to Chariot, holding a 10% equity interest in the drilling of the JP-1 well has the ability to establish transformational value as a result of the huge prospective resources, excellent contract commercial terms and vigorous economics despite the current lower oil price environment

“We look forward to working with Eni and our other partners, Woodside and ONHYM, to progress to drilling the JP-1 prospect which, subject to the relevant approvals, well planning and securing a drill rig, we anticipate to occur in 2017. Despite the challenges posed by current market sentiment, Chariot’s high quality assets continue to attract industry investment. We are excited that we now have an opportunity to see one of our priority targets through to drilling at near zero cost to the Company, with the agreed cap above recent drilling cost estimates provided by an independent party,” Larry Bottomley, CEO of Chariot told Offshore Energy Today.

Upon conclusion of the agreement, Eni will be the operator with 40% equity interest alongside Woodside, Chariot and Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) with 25%, 10% and 25% carried interests respectively.

Anita Fatunji