In a document with details of the half-year interim results [jusqu’au 31 janvier 2022]published on April 13, the oil company Europa Oil & Gas announced that, after a “recent assessment” in the Inezgane offshore, it had “identified” a significant volume of risk-free recoverable resources of more than 1 billion barrels (oil equivalent) , only in the first five prospects”.
Here, the company says it has “identified” risk-free sources. However, it does not specify whether it is a confirmed discovery, a potential to exploit, or an oil reserve. The question that arises is what are the results published by the UK operator, which actually owns 75% of the Inezgane license?
Please note that this permit covers 11,228 km² and its status is still according to the press release “explore”† It represents for the company “a high-impact exploration opportunity”, but also “an underdeveloped zone of the world”, which corresponds to the strategy of Europa Oil & Gas which aims to build a portfolio of “balanced” assets.
To determine the scope of this announcement, Médias24 has unsuccessfully tried to contact the oil company, as well as ONHYM, which holds 25% of the Inezgane license. At the time of writing, none of them have responded to our requests.
Europe Oil & Gas “has not yet started drilling”
An expert in the field, contacted by our concern, believes that it is not a matter of the discovery of an oil reserve, as the British company “has not started drilling yet”† “On their site it says they are looking for financial partners for the drilling, that is the most difficult part and will cost between 20 and 30 million dollars.”
In its press release, the company names the identified assets with the term “without risk‘, which according to this expert means that there is do not take risk parameters† Not to be confused with “ignited‘, which means there are no risks. In other words, the document published by Europa Oil & Gas states that “the recoverable volume, in the most optimistic cases, exceeds 1 billion barrels”. And this, “in the first five prospects”. Again, as our interlocutor points out, “the company only talks about prospects”.
For this expert, this announcement follows “a reinterpretation of the data, probably after using new images. Seismic traces have been created and reinterpreted with new software to estimate the volumes contained in this reservoir”.
For example, our interlocutor expects that, after the publication of the interim results, the company will launch a marketing campaign “to collect funding” and then start drilling.
