European Firms Advance Upstream Projects In Tunisia

European Firms Advance Upstream Projects In Tunisia

European investment in Tunisia continues to support the North African country’s energy prospects, with Sweden’s PA Resources announcing last week that it has brought on-stream a new well at the offshore Didon oil field, and the BG-operated Hasdrubal gas field due on-stream in July. PA Resources said on 10 June that the Didon-10 well brings to five the number of wells in production at the Didon platform, and will help bring the company’s average production in Tunisia for 2009 to 11,000-14,000 b/d. The horizontal production well penetrated a 350ms section of the El Gueria reservoir. The Didon field, which PA Resources operates with a 100% working interest, is one of the oil fields from which Tunisia has sought to boost output through enhanced oil recovery, in order to stem the overall decline in its crude production (MEES, 12 May 2008).

However, the biggest anticipated development in Tunisia’s upstream this year is the start-up of production at the Hasdrubal gas field. The development of the offshore field, located close to the Libyan border, will commercialize estimated reserves of 78mn barrels of oil equivalent, with an expected output of 1 bcm/year of gas and 150,000 tons/year of condensate. Originally due on-stream in March, first gas from the $1.3bn project is now expected next month, according to MEES sources. As Tunisia struggles to maintain oil production levels, it is increasingly focused on its gas potential, with the head of the state-owned ETAP Khaled Becheikh telling MEES last year that the company was mulling the construction of a small scale LNG plant to supply the European market (MEES, 23 June 2008).

Exploration Projects Unfold

There were also signs last week that exploration activity in Tunisia is progressing. Austria’s OMV and the UAE’s al-Thani Corporation signed an agreement on 8 June that commits them to spending $3mn and drilling one exploration well at the Sidi Mansour license, also in the Gulf of Gabes, according to Tunisia’s state news agency Tunisie Afrique Presse. Last year, OMV acquired an 80% interest in and operatorship of the license, which lies in the immediate vicinity of the Ashtart and Cercina oil fields. OMV is one of the biggest international producers in Tunisia, with interests in five production licenses, and has made a string of discoveries at the Jenein Sud exploration permit in recent years (MEES, 21 July 2008). 

Separately, Ireland’s Petroceltic announced a farm out agreement with PetroAsian Energy last week that will fund a seismic and multi-well drilling program at its onshore Ksar Hadada license. Under the agreement, the Hong Kong-listed company will acquire a 51% interest in the license and in return will finance a $14.5mn exploration program that consists of drilling two new exploration wells in 2010 and the acquisition and processing of 100km of 2D seismic data.

Copyright MEES 2009.