Chariot picks drilling manager for Anchois campaign off Morocco

Oil and gas exploration company Chariot Oil & Gas has appointed a drilling manager to lead the planned Anchois gas appraisal well drilling within the Lixus license offshore Morocco.

Chariot said on Thursday that it named David Brecknock to the role of drilling manager for the Anchois drilling campaign.

According to the company, the objectives of the drilling campaign are to further evaluate the resource volumes of the Anchois gas field to unlock the initial development, to provide a future producer well location and potentially drill the additional prospective sands to establish a larger resource base for longer-term growth.

Brecknock has considerable experience with high profile deepwater offshore drilling with over 20 years of international experience gained with Enterprise, Shell, BG, Devon, Perenco, Ophir as well as leading Chariot’s drilling in Namibia in 2018.

Adonis Pouroulis, acting CEO of Chariot, said: “I am delighted to welcome David back to the company. He played a pivotal role in Chariot’s previous drilling campaign in Namibia, which was operated safely, on time and under budget, and we expect him to play a similarly important part in our exciting Anchois gas appraisal well. We look forward to keeping the market up to speed over the coming months as we get closer to drilling”.

In September 2020, Chariot completed the reprocessing of 3D seismic data across the Lixus license which holds the Anchois discovery.

At the time, the company stated that the upgraded audited total remaining recoverable resources were over 1 Tcf which represents a 148 per cent increase – comprising 361 Bcf 2C contingent resources and 690 2U prospective resources.

The Lixus license off Morocco covers an area of around 2,390 square kilometres with water depths ranging from the coastline to 850 metres.

The Anchois development concept consists of subsea production wells tied to a subsea manifold, from which a subsea flowline and umbilical connect the field to an onshore central processing facility where gas is processed and then delivered into the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline via an onshore gas flowline.

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