The British oil exploration company Longreach Oil & Gas has just confirmed that it has begun drilling operations at the Koba 1 site, an onshore exploration project under the "Sidi Mokhtar" licence in the Essaouira region. According to a statement from Longreach Oil & Gas, published on Monday on its website, the drilling concerns a well 2,700 metres deep for a total duration of 50 days.

For this first well of the Sidi Mokhtar licence, which includes two, Longreach Oil & Gas puts forward figures that are almost enticing for potential global prospectors: 21 million barrels of oil condensate and 12 billion cubic metres of gas (or 350 billion cubic feet) for this single well. Faced with these recent expert estimates, Andrew Benitz, Executive Director of Longreach, did not hesitate to express his enthusiasm: "Longreach has carried out an extensive programme of geophysical and geological study work on the site.

The start of drilling marks a key milestone in Longreach's operations in this region". With a 50% stake in the operation of the Sidi Mokhtar licence, Longreach aims to move on to two other wells if the first two manage to yield the estimates put forward by the experts. Drilling operations at Sidi Mokhtar were announced last February. At that time, the British company had confirmed that it had finalised its 2D seismic programme on this licence on schedule. It was the Romanian company Prospectiuni that was subsequently responsible for defining the exact location of potential drilling sites.

Eager to strengthen their frontier exploration activities, major international oil groups are increasingly active in the central and southern regions of the country. In January 2013, Chevron was granted licences for three blocks in the deep-water Doukkala basin, while Tangiers Petroleum sold 50% of its stake in the offshore Tarfaya block to Galp in 2012. A previous test well, MO-2, drilled in Tarfaya, made it possible to assess the potential production capacity at more than 2,300 barrels per day (bpd).

And no later than last week, the Minister of Energy and Mines announced to parliamentarians that "the National Office of Hydrocarbons currently has 31 partnership contracts with global groups. The value of their investments is estimated at 3.3 billion DH for the year 2013 alone, with the drilling of 11 wells, 3 of which are already underway".

The enthusiasm of oil companies for Morocco is not fortuitous. In accordance with the 2000 Hydrocarbons Law, the ONHYM's participation in all exploration and production operations is limited to 25%, one of the lowest rates in the region. Royalties are also relatively modest: 10% for oil production and 5% for gas, rates that limit the government's participation to 35%. Longreach Oil & Gas itself stated that the profit generated by the production of one barrel of oil in Morocco corresponds to that of 13 barrels in Algeria, seven in Nigeria and two in Egypt.