First Sahara Energy has announced that it has been invited to finalise an oil and gas reconnaissance license contract for the Beni Znassen Block by Morocco’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (ONHYM)
Company sources said that the meeting was scheduled to take place within the next few weeks in the capital city of Rabat.
For the last five months, First Sahara Energy was engaged in the evaluation of 14 available oil and gas properties in Morocco. This evaluation was finally narrowed down to Beni Znassen Block, located onshore in the northeast part of the country.
The block is 4,856 sq km with extensive 2D seismic data and has similar reservoir and source rocks to the Tselfat area in central Morocco, which has large proven oil and gas reserves, according to the Canadian explorer.
The block is also close to the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline, which transports gas from Maghreb gas field in Algeria.
First Sahara Energy and ONHYM had recently come to a general agreement on the terms of a work programme, which will be carried out within one year of the issuance of the reconnaissance license. Most of the it will focus on the large structural anomaly and will consist of reprocessing 600km of existing 2D seismic data.
The company is also expected to carry out a rock evaluation of basin outcrops, micro-seepage study across the identified structural anomaly and hyper spectral/multi-spectral analysis from high resolution satellite imagery.
David Stadnyk, CEO of First Sahara Energy, said, “Morocco is fast becoming a new frontier for oil and gas exploration and we are very enthused about the country’s potential to be a major petroleum producer.
“We are also grateful for and excited about the opportunity to be a part of this emerging story and we look forward to working with ONHYM to make our exploration efforts on the Beni Znassen Basin a great success.”
