Stena rig arrives in Morocco to drill Chariot wells

A Stena Drilling-owned rig has arrived in waters offshore Morocco to carry out drilling operations on the Anchois gas development project for Chariot.

Chariot booked the Stena Don semi-submersible rig for its Anchois gas appraisal well within the Lixus licence back in September 2021. The Lixus offshore licence covers an area of approximately 2,390km2, with water depths ranging from the coastline to 850m.

Chariot has a 75 per cent interest and operatorship of Lixus offshore licence in partnership with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) which holds a 25 per cent interest.

The rig started its mobilisation to Morocco, the first time for it to move out of the North Sea, at the beginning of December. According to Chariot’s update on Wednesday, the rig has now arrived on location in the Lixus licence.

As detailed by Chariot, operations to drill the Anchois-2 gas appraisal & exploration well and re-enter the previously drilled Anchois-1 gas discovery well are expected to take up to approximately 40 days.

The objectives of the Anchois-2 gas appraisal & exploration well drilling include unlocking the development of the discovered sands by confirming the gas resource volumes, reservoir quality and well productivity and providing a future production well for the development of the field.

Another objective is to deepen the appraisal well into additional low-risk exploration targets with the aim of establishing a larger resource base for longer-term growth.

On the other hand, well re-entry objectives for the Anchois-1 gas discovery include assessing the integrity of the previously drilled well, evaluating the productivity and gas characteristics of the discovered A Gas Sand, and providing a second future production well for the development of the field.

Chariot has also already booked Halliburton for services on the project, including project management services; directional drilling and logging whilst drilling services; drilling fluids materials and engineering services.

Adonis Pouroulis, Acting CEO of Chariot, commented: “I am pleased to announce that the Stena Don has now arrived on site, with operations to commence immediately, for a potentially transformational drilling programme for Chariot.

“Our recently completed oversubscribed fundraise allows us to drill both the Anchois-2 gas appraisal well and re-enter the Anchois-1 gas discovery well and we anticipate updating the market separately after the completion of each operation.”