Malta will be hosting a business roundtable between the 6th and 7th of March¸ in an event organised by the famed business weekly magazine ‘The Economist’. The roundtable will be attended by a host of top European politicians and business gurus. Amongst them – Mr Tony Hayward¸ former BP chief executive who is today head of Genel¸ which has production sharing agreements for oil drilling in Malta
Mr Hayward said during the interview with OilPrice.com that he believes in geology and looks forward to drilling in Maltese waters. “As we have expanded outside Africa we have targeted opportunities to take material interests in high impact prospects¸ with the potential for field sizes of at least 250 million bbls. Malta and Morocco both fall firmly in these categories and¸ while expectations are dangerous in this business¸ we are confident in the geology and look forward to drilling them both. Morocco will be our first well to spud outside the KRI when it does so in the last quarter of this year” Tony Hayward Said.
In 2012¸ Genel acquired a 75% participating interest in Mediterranean Oil and Gas Plc’s (MOG) licence interests in Area 4 (Blocks 4¸5¸6 and 7) in offshore Malta – blocks where the maritime border has been agreed and internationally recognised with Libya. The blocks¸ which lie in the south of Malta¸ are within the Medina Bank area in water depths of around 500m.
Map: Genel Energy – operations in Malta
Source: Genel Energy
Hydrocarbon production has been established in adjacent areas for several decades with the Area 4 block having considerable exploration potential. Genel’s blocks are anticipated to be geologically similar to the producing areas of the Libya Sirte Basin and Tunisia.
3D seismic has been shot and interpreted which has identified a number of plays and several prospects have been defined in each play type¸ with total prospective acreage of 800 mmboe targeted.
Preparations for the drilling of the first well in Area 4 (Hagar Qim) are progressing. A service order has been signed with AGR Well Management Limited for the provision of drilling engineering and rig procurement support¸ with drilling scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2014¸ targeting 250 mmboe gross unrisked prospective resource with a POS of 20% (Genel estimate).
To read full interview with Mr Hayward¸ please click here