Despite gas pays being present, drilling ops off Morocco ‘unsuccessful’ in fulfilling main objectives

London-based oil and gas player Energean has finished drilling activities without reaching its exploration targets at an appraisal well on its gas field in the Lixus license located 40 km off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean.

Once Energean expanded its presence in the Mediterranean region in April 2024 with a new country entry, thanks to partnership agreements with Chariot to take over the operator role at two Moroccan offshore licenses, including the Lixus offshore license (Lixus), where the Anchois gas development project is located, Stena Drilling’s Stena Forth drillship was hired on a one-well contract with the flexibility to drill an additional option well in Morocco.

After the rig began drilling the Anchois-3 appraisal well in August 2024, the preliminary interpretation from last week indicated the presence of gas-bearing reservoirs in the B sands, which is an appraisal objective of the well, thus, further detailed work was required to understand the impact of the results. Energean’s estimate before drilling pointed to a significant upside potential and value from the prospective resources in the pilot hole and main hole targets.

These were estimated to have the potential to increase the resource base to over 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf), fueling the firm’s hopes of moving toward a final investment decision (FID) quickly. However, the preliminary results from the Anchois-3 well drilling campaign did not back the pre-drill estimate at the Anchois gas project in the Lixus offshore license, owned by Energean (45% stake, operator), alongside its partners Chariot (30%) and ONHYM (25%).

According to Chariot, the Anchois-3 main hole has been drilled to a total measured depth of 3,045 m by the Stena Forth drillship in 349 m of water, with the preliminary interpretation indicating multiple good-quality gas-bearing reservoirs in the B sand appraisal interval as anticipated, but the associated gas pays are now interpreted to be lower than the pre-drill geological model.

While the target reservoirs beneath the B sands were also encountered, they were water-wet. The appraisal target reservoirs of the C and M sand were drilled deeper than the gas-bearing sands in the Anchois-2 well and into the water-leg at this down-dip location.

The Anchois North Flank exploration prospect, which was found to have well-developed O sand reservoirs with associated gas shows, was also water-wet. As a result, the main hole has now been plugged and abandoned, without flow testing, and the drillship is being demobilized. The Lixus partnership intends to work on defining the next steps for the project.

Adonis Pouroulis, CEO of Chariot, commented: “The Anchois East drilling campaign has evaluated all of the pre-drill reservoir targets, however results have not delivered as anticipated or in line with the excellent results of the previously drilled Anchois-2 well.

“The primary exploration objectives were unsuccessful however, we did demonstrate the extension of gas bearing reservoirs in the main appraisal B sands albeit with thinner columns than estimated and data acquired from the other reservoirs will be useful for our understanding of the field. We will now work with our joint venture partners to determine the forward plan.”

Currently, Energean is working on developing its projects offshore Israel, as illustrated by the FID for the Katlan development project, entailing a capital expenditure expected to be approximately $1.2 billion.

This will be developed through a phased approach with a subsea tie-back to the existing FPSO Energean Power, which serves the Karish and Karish North developments.