Chariot has announced today the commencement of drilling operations at its Lixus license offshore Morocco. The campaign will drill and complete the Anchois-2 gas appraisal and exploration well and re-enter the previously drilled Anchois-1 gas discovery well, with a view of fast-tracking the offshore gas development of Anchois. The Stena Don drilling rig is mobilized to carry out drilling operations.
The Anchois gas field lies in water depths of 850m and was first discovered in 2009 by former operator Repsol. The field was then transferred to Chariot when the company was awarded the Lixius Offshore Licence in 2019.
Back then, the Anchois-1 gas discovery had 307 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of 2C contingent resources offering near-term development opportunity and had identified a deeper potential not penetrated by the Anchois-1 well of 116 Bcf 2U prospective resource.
Under the new licence’s commitment, Chariot reprocessed existing data which led to upgrading the total remaining recoverable resource to well over 1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in 2020.
Ongoing activities now target a final investment decision (FID) in 2022 to achieve first gas by 2024 with a production rate of 53 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd). Estimated capex required to bring the development online are currently anticipated to be in the region of $300-500m.
