Italian oil company Eni has started drilling the Rabat Deep 1 (RD-1) well offshore Morocco.
The RD-1 well is located on the Rabat Deep Permits in Morocco where Eni is the operator with a 40% interest. Eni’s partners are Woodside Energy (25%), ONHYM (25%), and Chariot Oil & Gas (10%).
The well is being drilled with the Saipem 12000 drillship, which was mobilized from Cyprus to Morocco in late February as actions by the Turkish navy made Eni postpone its drilling plans in Cyprus.
The RD-1 well is targeting the JP-1 prospect, a large, four-way dip closed structure of approximately 200 square km areal extent, with Jurassic carbonate primary reservoir objectives, and an independently audited gross mean prospective resource estimate of 768mmbbls.
Announcing the start of drilling operations on Wednesday, Chariot said that operations are expected to take approximately 50 days.
Eni secured the Saipem 12000 drillship for its drilling program in the Rabat Deep Offshore license in September 2017.
In the meantime, Eni also used the drillship for its operations offshore Cyprus, making a large gas discovery at the Calypso prospect in the Block 6 in February 2018.
Offshore Energy Today Staff