Paul Griffiths, Fastnet’s managing director
By Geoff Percival
Fastnet Oil and Gas is expecting to seal a deal with a development partner for its highly-rated onshore Moroccan assets before the end of the year.
The news follows the Dublin-based explorer significantly improving the terms of its licensing agreement regarding the onshore Tendrara-Lakbir project, which covers an area of around 14,500sq km in the north-east of Morocco.
It emerged, last year, that the Tendrara licence could hold more than double the amount of reserves than first anticipated and be worth nearly €45m to Fastnet.
This could now be significantly increased. As part of its revised terms, Fastnet will see — once the licence option is exercised — its equity stake in the prospect rise from 37.5% to 50%. Fastnet said it is in discussions and should conclude those talks sometime in the second half of this year.
“The revised terms significantly reduce Fastnet’s financial exposure and provide us with much improved project economics,” noted the Dublin firm’s managing director, Paul Griffiths.
“We expect that the new commercial terms and project economics should allow us to attract a major partner,” he added.
An independent survey of Tendrara-Lakbir, conducted last year, put at 310.5 billion cubic feet of gas, the best recoverable resource estimate, based on a 65% recovery factor. The asset could have the power to transform Morocco from a near total importer of gas to a net exporter in the coming years.
Fastnet’s share price was up by over 3% yesterday.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
