Island secures licence for Moroccan basin

ISLAND Oil & Gas has announced it has been granted a licence in the Zag Basin off the coast of Morocco.

The basin represents an under-explored Palaeozoic North African sedimentary basin for which no seismic data has been acquired to date.

But yesterday the company said it believes an active petroleum system is understood to be present in this basin, based on early drilling history. Island also said there was a proven presence of a source rock, which looks encouraging at this stage because it replicates the kind geophysical structures that underpinned the other major oil and gas fields found in neighbouring countries.

The licence, valid for a year, covers an area of 21,807sq km, or about one-third the size of Ireland. After a successful 2006 drilling programme offshore Ireland, Island has also announced details of its proposed 2007 drilling programme. It has already secured a rig to carry out next year’s programme, which will focus on pre-development drilling in the Old Head of Kinsale gas field.

Island also said it had established a farm-out programme for various near-development and exploration projects on the Atlantic Margin, which would allow the group to progress a rolling programme of potential oil and gas developments over the next two to five years.