Chariot, a company looking to develop the Anchois offshore gas discovery in Morocco, has found a buyer for the field's gas as well as a partner.
The company said Thursday it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with an unnamed "leading international energy group."
"The MOU relates to the key terms of gas offtake and partnering between the Parties in respect of the Anchois Gas Development within the Lixus licence, offshore Morocco," Chariot said.
"The key terms of the future gas sales agreements will be for c.40 mmscf/d, for up to 20 years on a take or pay principle, to underpin the development. In addition, an agreed framework process has commenced to establish a long-term partnership. The Parties will progress discussions with the view to signing final agreements to implement the Anchois Gas Development with targeted Final Investment Decision ("FID") in 2022 and first gas in 2024," Chariot added.
Adonis Pouroulis, Acting CEO of Chariot, said: "Ahead of our highly anticipated Anchois gas appraisal well in December I am very pleased to announce this MOU on gas sales and partnering. Along with the recent high international gas prices, this agreement clearly demonstrates that there is significant demand to underpin the Anchois Gas Development. This agreement will help expedite the development of this value accretive gas project, for the benefit of all stakeholders."
Chariot in September signed a contract with offshore drilling firm Stena Drilling to use its Stena Don drilling rig for the Anchois gas appraisal well.
The objective of the drilling program is to unlock the development of the discovered sands by confirming the gas resource volumes, reservoir quality, and well productivity, provide a future production well for the development of the field, and potentially deepen the well into additional low-risk prospective sands with the aim of establishing a larger resource base for longer-term growth.
Drilling operations are expected to begin in December 2021 and are expected to take up to approximately 40 days.
Chariot has previously said that the Anchois development concept consists of subsea production wells tied to a subsea manifold, from which a subsea flowline and umbilical connect the field to an onshore Central Processing Facility, where gas is processed and then delivered into the Maghreb-Europe Gas pipeline via an onshore gas flowline.