Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd. (COPL) confirmed that it and its partner, ExxonMobil (XOM), remain committed to completing their Liberian Block (LB) 13 work program in Liberia under the production sharing contract (PSC).
According to COPL (20% interest), the National Oil Co. of Liberia and XOM (80% interest), the operator, continue to meet regularly to discuss operations, community and social responsibility activities and the fulfilment of the LB-13 work program, which was delayed by the Ebola crisis.
The government of Liberia continues to provide its assurances that it will act under the terms of the PSC to provide the company and ExxonMobil sufficient time to complete their work program and will extend the current exploration period if necessary. Now that Liberia has been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization, XOM is planning its next steps for operations, reports COPL.
According to the Pan African Capital Group LLC, Liberia is at least five to seven years away from producing commercially viable quantities of oil if current explorations are successful. Firms exploring Liberia’s hydrocarbon resource potential are currently at various stages of their exploration agendas and are expected to invest billions of dollars to bring new discoveries to market over the course of the exploration and production activities.
“Scheduling new rigs to return to the area in late 4Q 2014 and early 1Q 2015, and drilling further wells to see how large or small the reservoir is, will be crucial in determining and confirming the extent of Liberia’s hydrocarbon resource. The Liberia basin consists of 30 concessionary blocks,” reports Pan African.
A total of 17 of these blocks are from the continental shelf to water depths of between 2500m to 4000m, and 13 of the blocks are considered to be ultradeep with water depths of as much as 4500m. On 7 July 2014, LB-1 to -7 were unclaimed, LB-8 and -9 were claimed by European Hydrocarbons Ltd. (100% interest), and LB-10 was claimed by Anadarko (80%), Mitsubishi (10%) and Repsol (10%), according to Pan African Capital. LB-11, -12 and -14 were claimed by Chevron (45%), Oranto (30%) and ENI (25%), while LB-15 was claimed by Anadarko (47.5%), Repsol (27.5%) and Tullow (25%). LB-16 was claimed by Repsol (75%) and Tullow (25%).
Read more:
Ebola delays Exxon’s Liberia plan
Image: Liberia blocks map / Pan African Capital Group
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