Africa-focused oil and gas company Chariot has informed that the Stena Don semi-submersible drilling rig has started its mobilization to Morocco.
The drilling rig was recently used by the UK-focused oil company Tailwind to drill the Evelyn field development well, at the Triton Cluster on the UK North Sea.
Chariot in September said it had hired the Stena Don to drill on its Anchois gas field within the Lixus licence, offshore Morocco. The operations are set to start in mid-December 2021.
Adonis Pouroulis, Acting CEO of Chariot, said: "We are excited for drilling operations to get underway at Anchois and we look forward to keeping the market updated on developments as appropriate."
Drilling operations are expected to take up to approximately 40 days.
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.
Back in July, Chariot appointed David Brecknock to the role of Drilling Manager, to lead the planned Anchois gas appraisal well drilling.
"David has considerable experience with high profile deepwater offshore drilling with over 20 years of international experience gained with Enterprise, Shell, BG, Devon, Perenco, Ophir as well as leading Chariot's drilling in Namibia in 2018," Chariot said at the time.
Chariot in September signed a binding letter of intent with oilfield services giant Halliburton for services on the Anchois gas appraisal well
The services Halliburton will assist Chariot with include but are not limited to project management services, directional drilling, and logging whilst drilling services, drilling fluids materials and engineering services, cementing, pumping, materials and engineering services, wireline logging services; and drill bits and coring services.
Chariot has previously said that the Anchois development concept consisted 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.
FID in 2022
The company in October said it had found a buyer for the field's gas as well as a partner. It said 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 said in October.