Wednesday 13 December 2017

In Morocco, Chariot announced the transfer of operatorship to Eni of the Rabat Deep Offshore Exploration Permits I-VI. The Rabat Deep partnership will be drilling the RD-1 well using the Saipem 12000 drillship with spud expected in March 2018. The prospect that this well is targeting, JP-1, has audited gross mean prospective resources of 768mmbls, which, if successful, will be transformational for the Company. This well will be closely watched by the industry as one of the larger prospects likely to be drilled in the world during 2018. The Rabat Deep Permits have an additional six leads in the same play which have the potential to be de-risked by the RD-1 well.

During the year, Chariot was awarded the Kenitra Offshore Exploration Permit (Chariot, 75% equity and operator), adjacent to the Rabat Deep and Mohammedia licence areas. Chariot also acquired both 2D and 3D seismic data over Kenitra and the adjacent Mohammedia Exploration Permits during 2017 to investigate the extent of the prospectivity in the Lower Cretaceous play. The processing of these data has now been completed, and the Company has started the interpretation programme. The team had previously matured prospects from 3D data acquired by Chariot in 2014, including the JP-2 prospect, which has the potential to be de-risked by the RD-1 well. The Company also identified an inventory of prospects in the shallower Lower Cretaceous play, and is targeting the drilling of Kenitra-1 in H1, 2019, which has a gross mean prospective resource of 464mmbbls as part of a larger portfolio in the Mohammedia and Kenitra permits totalling 1.5 billion barrels in prospective resources. A partnering process has been initiated and drilling preparations have begun.