Panoro Energy to increase Tunisia output. Prepares for Sfax drilling

Oslo-listed Panoro Energy has revealed plans to increase daily output and the reserve base on its Tunisian TPS assets which it recently bought from OMV and is also preparing for drilling at the Sfax offshore permit.

Panoro said on Friday that the highest impact near-term opportunity would be the resumption of production at the El Ain field.

The El Ain field is located in the Gremda concession, which legally expired in December 2018, and where the wells have been shut in for over a year.

Panoro and ETAP applied for a new concession and are currently planning the resumption of production from the two existing wells immediately after formal authorization from the Tunisian Authorities to continue operations, pending formal ratification of the new concession.

A workover unit is on site, and long lead items necessary to bring the wells back on stream have been procured.

The company added that medium-term initiatives included sidetracks and an enhanced water injection program at the Guebiba field, where Panoro believes reserves and production could be materially increased.

These near-term opportunities could provide a production uplift of up to 15-20 percent during 2019 compared to the recent 4,000 bopd gross averaged during December 2018.

To remind, in December 2018, Panoro bought OMV’s subsidiary, OMV Tunisia Upstream, which holds 49% interests in the Guebiba/El Hajib, Rhemoura, El Ain, Cercina, and Cercina South concessions in Tunisia and 50% of the shares in the Thyna Petroleum Services S.A. Operating Company (TPS).

The remaining stakes in the concessions and in TPS continue to be held by the Tunisian National Oil Company (ETAP).

Sfax Offshore Exploration Permit (SOEP) renewal

In parallel, Panoro and the Tunisian Authorities came to a constructive and mutually beneficial arrangement regarding the renewal of SOEP which the company acquired from DNO in July 2018.

As a precondition to enter a second renewal period for an additional three-year period, Panoro agreed to fulfill the outstanding drilling obligation under the first renewal period which expired on December 8, 2018. The company proposed to drill the Salloum West-1 well (SAMW-1) to fully satisfy the commitment.

Panoro is currently working with partner ETAP on the technical program and formalization of drilling plans including well planning, location, and approvals for drilling and testing.

The primary target of the SAMW-1 well is the Bireno formation where Panoro identified an independent block located west of the discovered Salloum structure. The SAMW-1 well will target an independent fault compartment up-dip from the Salloum-1 well drilled by British Gas in 1992.

The objective of the well is to prove additional resources in the vicinity of the Salloum-1 well and to aggregate them to fast-track the development of Salloum through a tie-in to existing adjacent oil infrastructure.

Tunisia’s Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) told Panoro that it had to post a bank guarantee in relation to the drilling operations on SOEP, which will be released at successive operational stages beginning with the spudding of the well, on track during 2019. Accordingly, Panoro procured a bank guarantee for the gross amount of $16.6 million.

SOEP is operated by Panoro Tunisia Exploration AS and holds an 87.5 percent interest. It covers an area of 3,228 square kilometers offshore the city of Sfax. There are three oil discoveries on the permit, Salloum, Ras El Besh, and Jawahra with gross recoverable oil estimated at 20 million barrels.

John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, said: “We look forward to increasing the production at TPS and to continue moving forward with the further evaluation of the Salloum oil discovery located on the Sfax Offshore Exploration Permit.”