The Tunisian Department of Energy (DGE) recently approved a proposal presented by Canada’s Eurogas in partnership with the Texas-based Gaither Petroleum Corporation, for further exploration and development of the block and other particulars relating to the granting of the Sfax Offshore Prospecting Permit.
A Profit Sharing Agreement with ETAP, the Tunisian national oil company, and the DGE, and other related documentation is being finalized for execution later in July. The Sfax permit covers an area of 3,676 square kilometers and lies adjacent to the 940 million barrel Ashtart oil field.
The permit is highly prospective for the early development of known oil accumulations. An aggressive plan to conduct a 3D seismic program in the later part of 2003 or early 2004 over the known structural oil accumulations is scheduled. The program seeks to better image these structures in an effort to validate oil reserve estimates and to optimize future drilling locations.
Eurogas Corporation has a 45 percent working interest in the permit; Gaither Petroleum Corporation, with 55 percent, is the operator. Eurogas has been active in Tunisia since 1992 and has pioneered the Triassic TAGI sands play concept in Tunisia, seeking to prove large-scale hydrocarbon deposits in the northeast extension of the prolific Berkine Basin, which begins in eastern Algeria.
The acquisition of the Sfax permit heralds an added dimension to Eurogas' high impact grass roots exploration program in Tunisia by providing the opportunity to participate in the development of known oil accumulations which were discovered during an era of low oil prices and developing offshore production technology. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
