Stena Rig Off To Drill Appraisal Well For Chariot In Morocco

The Stena Drilling-owned Stena Don semi-submersible rig has started its mobilization operations to Morocco where it will drill a gas appraisal well on the Lixus offshore license for energy company Chariot.

According to the latest AIS data provided by VesselsValue, the Stena Don is in St. George's Channel in the Irish Sea, and it is expected to reach Morocco’s offshore on December 13, 2021.

The Lixus license where the rig will be working covers an area of over 590,000 acres, in water depths ranging from the coastline to 2,800 feet. The license has been previously covered by 3D seismic exploration and already has four drilled wells – one of them being the Anchois gas discovery.

“We are excited for drilling operations to get underway at Anchois and we look forward to keeping the market updated on developments as appropriate,” Adonis Pouroulis, Acting CEO of Chariot, said.

The drilling objectives for Chariot’s appraisal well are to unlock the development of the discovered sands by confirming the gas resource volumes, reservoir quality, well productivity, and provide a future production well for the development of the field.

Another objective is to potentially deepen the well into additional low-risk prospective sands with the aim of establishing a larger resource base for longer-term growth.

It is worth reminding that Chariot hired the Stena Don from the offshore driller in September 2021. Operations on the Anchois gas field within the Lixus license are scheduled to start in mid-December 2021 and take up around 40 days.

Chariot already hired oilfield services giant Halliburton for work on the well. The contract scope includes project management services, directional drilling and logging whilst drilling, as well as drilling fluids materials and engineering services.

Halliburton will also be responsible for cementing, pumping, materials and engineering services, wireline logging, drill bits, and coring services.

As for the Stena Don, it is a semi-submersible rig, suitable for drilling, completion, and workover operations. This is a sort-of milestone for the Stena Don as this will be the first time for the rig to step out from its ‘comfort zone’ and leave the North Sea.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com