Proactive Investors
Just weeks after acquiring the Anchois project the company today reveals an upgrade to gas resources, which are now seen at around one trillion cubic feet.
Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (LON:CHAR) has unveiled a new independent report that somewhat quickly underlines the significant opportunity presented by its recently acquired Anchois project, offshore Morocco.
A competent persons report, penned by consultant Netherland Sewell & Associates, delivers an upgrade to the Anchois gas resources up to around one trillion cubic feet.
The upgrade comes as satellite prospects such as ‘Anchois North’ are pulled into the estimates of the main project.
WATCH: Chariot Oil & Gas targets lower-risk growth with new Morocco asset
Anchois North was seen by Netherland Sewell to be a ‘low risk’ prospect with 308bn cubic feet of gas resources, and, a 43% chance of geological success.
Chariot highlighted that five further satellite prospects could potentially be added, and, accordingly a further CPR is anticipated once a seismic data reprocessing exercise is completed.
“This independent third party evaluation confirms that the Anchois discovery and its nearby satellite prospects presents Chariot with an exciting and commercially attractive development opportunity,” said Larry Bottomley, Chariot chief executive.
“The combination of a de-risked resource base in a fast-growing energy market, with high gas prices and a need for increased supply is highly attractive to a wide range of strategic partners throughout the energy value chain.”
Bottomley added: “We anticipate a period of sustained news flow on this exciting project going forward, which should further unlock the value of the Lixus licence, with the results of the feasibility and gas market studies expected to be announced in due course.”
Low risk, low cost acquisition
In early April, Chariot announced the acquisition of the Lixus licence, which hosts Anchois. It took up a 75% stake in the asset, alongside state-backed partner ONHYM with 25%.
It is anticipated that Anchois can be the starting point for a hub-approach to exploration and development.
At the time, the company noted that the project had “world class” commercial contract terms and that the asset acquisition comes with minimal licence commitments, which will be funded from current cash resources. It anticipates a future development which would deliver strong returns and significant cash flow.
The acquisition came after last summer’s disappointing outcome of the Rabat Deep exploration well, offshore Morocco, and, after the Prospect S well offshore Namibia failed to make a big discovery.
Investor evidently welcomed the step away from higher risk frontier style exploration as Chariot shares are up more than 100% over the weeks following the deal.