Gulfsands Petroleum plc (LON:GPX) has been awarded an extension to its Moulay Bouchta petroleum agreement in Morocco and saved some money in the process.
Following the extension agreement with Morocco’s Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM), the initial phase will now run for an extra year to 19 June 2017.
The oil and gas explorer said it has also agreed a revised work programme. The programme comprises the acquisition of 200 kilometres of two-dimensional (2D) seismic data; the reprocessing and interpretation of selected legacy 2D seismic data; and a legacy field study with the aim of identifying any potential opportunities to reactivate dormant fields.
The estimated cost of the work programme has been reduced from US$3.5million to US$2.5million.
Gulf’s Moroccan subsidiary will immediately seek to begin the environmental impact study in anticipation of commencing the seismic acquisition. The company is already in discussions with ONHYM to secure a further extension to allow additional time to complete the revised work programme.
The Aim-listed company said the work programme will focus on an oil prospective area identified to the east of the depleted Haricha oil field.
Based on work performed to date, Gulf has identified new lead concepts with gross recoverable prospective resources estimated at 149mln barrels of oil, though it is worth noting that this is purely an in-house estimate.
As is usually the case with junior explorers, Gulf remains interested in finding a partner to farm in to the Moulay Bouchta permit.