Their names have more to do with drinks – Chianti and Limoncello – than with oil, but two areas in offshore areas held by Malta bordering on the Libyan and Tunisian areas were authoritatively said to hold “world class oil reserves potential”.
This emerges from the annual report of Pancontinental Oil and Gas NL, issued last week.
Two areas (see diagram from the report) Area 5 and Block 3 within Area 4 offshore Malta are held by Pancontinental under an Exploration Study Agreement together with Sun Resources NL on an 80 per cent /20 per cent basis. The combined project area is approximately 14,800 square kilometres in water depths from 100 to 400 metres.
The main prospects are in the 200 to 300 metre range – shallow by current industry development standards, the report said.
A number of very large Cretaceous and Tertiary carbonate “reef” leads and prospects have been identified. These appear similar to those hosting very large producing oil and gas yields in neighbouring Tunisian and Libyan waters.
The two largest leads mapped from seismic data, – Chianti and Limoncello – have world class oil reserves potential.
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, an independent US-listed exploration and production company, farmedin to the project in June 2005.
Anadarko has agreed to fund a 1,385 kilometre 2D seismic survey, with the option to drill and test one exploration well, to earn 65 per cent in the two project areas.
Anadarko may then increase its equity to 75 per cent by drilling and funding a second well, which would bring its total exploration expenditure to more than AU$50 million (at current rig rates).
Due to discussions between the Government of Malta and neighbours Libya and Tunisia, work on the exploration project is currently suspended, the report said.
The joint venture participants await advice from the Government of Malta allowing a resumption of exploration.
Meanwhile , Leni Gas & Oil, the AIM listed international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, last week announced the formal commencement of the Production Sharing Contract with the Government of Malta on its Joint Venture with Mediterranean Oil & Gas.
LGO has a 10 per cent interest in Area 4, Blocks 4, 5, 6 and 7 offshore Malta with MOG’s wholly owned subsidiary, Malta Oil Pty, as PSC Contractor and Operator. The signing of the PSC was previously announced on 21 July.
Under terms of the PSC, on 15 October the Advisory Committee for the PSC, constituting members of the Joint Venture and the Ministry of Resources & Rural Affairs for the Government of Malta, was inaugural convened and the work programme for 2009 approved.
Four prospects and five leads on the 5,700 square kilometre PSC Area have been delineated. The total most likely hydrocarbon potential of the PSC Area is estimated at five billion barrels of oil in place with resultant total most likely case prospective recoverable oil resources of 1,475 mmbo.
The objective of the 2009 Work Programme is to increase the understanding of the prospect and leads and increase their relative chance of success for identifying the highest potential for drilling in 2010 and 2011. The Work Programme will parallel several activities to assess the feasibility of and acquire electromagnetic and gravity data, execute depth re-processing on the acquired 3D seismic and acquire and interpret non-seismic data.
The 2009 Work Programme has a gross budget cost of $2.5m with LGO contributing $250m.
David Lenigas, Executive Chairman, commented: “The previous technical assessment on the Malta acreage showed very encouraging results and several high value prospects and leads. The PSC and associated work programmes will allow the joint venture to significantly improve its understanding of the highest potential prospects thus increasing the chance of success for the 2010 drilling campaign.
“We look forward to working closely with MOG to execute the 2009 work programme and anticipate positive results from next year’s activities.”
