Tangiers Petroleum has said the Ralph Coffman jackup rig started drilling at the TAO-1 exploration well, offshore Morocco, yesterday.
The TAO-1 well is within a proven petroleum system, adjacent to the Cap Juby heavy oil discovery and has been designed to test up to three stacked objectives, Assaka (Upper Jurassic), Trident (Middle Jurassic), and TMA (Lower Jurassic, contingent upon success at Trident/Assaka).
The secondary objective, Assaka, and the main objective at Trident are scheduled to be intersected within about two months. Contingent upon the results at Assaka and Trident, the Joint Venture will then make a decision to deepen to the TMA objective. The well plan does not include flow testing.
Tangiers expects to make additional updates as appropriate during the course of the drilling.
Tangiers has a 25% participating interest in the Tarfaya Offshore Block, which is being operated by Galp Energia with a 50%. The remaining 25% is held by ONHYM (Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines), which is carried through the exploration phase.