Australia's ADX Energy has won 100% stake in an exploration permit offshore Italy, which it will operate through its wholly owned Italian subsidiary.
The offshore exploration permit d 363 C.R-.AX was awarded by the Italian Ministry of Industry and is on trend with the company's offshore Tunisian Kerkouane permit, adjacent to its previously awarded d 364 C.R-.AX license.
The block is on the same structural trend as the onshore Cap Bon fields in Tunisia.
The company said the block had excellent prospectivity and would allow the commercial development of smaller discoveries because of shallow water depths, less than 100m, and the excellent fiscal regime in Italy.
ADX's two offshore Italian blocks are situated on the Terravecchia foredeep, which holds a number of Italy's largest oil and gas fields.
This prolific hydrocarbon province starts in the northern Italian Po Valley, continuing along the entire Adriatic Sea, through onshore and offshore Sicily, into northern Tunisia.
[Image: Regional setting in the oil and gas-rich foreland area, with ADX licenses in red; from ADX Energy Ltd.]
Background
The two Italian offshore blocks now held by ADX are situated in the “Terravecchia Foredeep” in front of the Tunisian Atlas thrust front, a geological sub‐province of the extensive Italian foredeep and foreland area. This prolific hydrocarbon province hosts a large number of Italy’s oil and gas fields, starting in the northern Italian Po Valley, continuing along the entire Adriatic Sea and through Sicily into northern Tunisia.
Very little seismic and drilling activity has been undertaken in the past, in the areas close to Italy's maritime border with Tunisia.
Shell and ADX have already acquired about 2000sq km of leading-edge Geostreamer (dual sensor) technology 3D seismic surveys in their respective Tunisian and Italian licenses. As a result, ADX has now identified a number of large, drillable prospects in its Kerkouane block This trend contains large thrust related anticline prospects such as the ones identified in ADX’s Kerkouane block next to the ADX-operated Dougga gas condensate discovery, already proven to be successful by the Nilde oil field, which has produced about 25 MMbbl of light oil from a high-productivity carbonate reservoir.
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