Woodside expands into Morocco

Australia’s Woodside has finalized an agreement with Chariot Oil & Gas to farm-in to the prospective Doukkala basin, offshore northwest Morocco.

Under the agreement, Woodside acquires an initial 25% interest in the Rabat Deep Offshore permits I-VI. The agreement includes an option to acquire an additional 25% and operatorship, for a capped well carry obligation. The agreement is also subject to required government approvals.

Permits I-VI are undrilled and cover 10,782sq km, 50km offshore, in 150-3600m water depths. 

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the farm-in provided an opportunity to secure a large acreage footprint in an emerging petroleum province that is prospective for both oil and gas.

“Exploration in this basin aligns with our strategy to secure new international growth opportunities in frontier and emerging basins characterized by materiality and quality,” Coleman says. “This opportunity has been supported by Woodside’s disciplined approach to studying regional petroleum systems, including the Atlantic margins, and is a good fit with our core capabilities in deepwater exploration and production.”

The Rabat Deep permits are nearby Woodside’s Canary Islands acreage position. 

According to Chariot, the principal drilling candidate prospect JP-1 in the Jurassic play fairway, Rabat Deep Offshore, has an estimated unrisked gross mean prospective oil resource of 618MMbbl. JP-1 covers 149sq km and is a four-way dip faulted Jurassic carbonate structure, says Chariot. The firm says there are an additional six oil leads in the Jurassic play fairway. 

Larry Bottomley, Chariot’s CEO said: “The independent audit of the prospective resource potential of the Rabat Deep Offshore Permit demonstrates the giant scale of the opportunity that exists within the Chariot portfolio. Although this acreage in Morocco requires further maturation to deliver additional drillable prospects, all of the play elements of source, reservoir and seal have been demonstrated and success in our exploration campaign would deliver transformational growth. Importantly, any success here will have a significant impact on de-risking the multiple additional leads, indicating significant follow-on potential.”