BP takes Morocco stake as drilling set to test potential new frontier


With a much-anticipated drilling programme set to test Morocco’s offshore potential, BP has taken a non-operating interest in the adjacent Essaouira Offshore, Foum Assaka Offshore and Tarhazoute Offshore blocks, and will fund Kosmos’ share of the cost of a well in each of them. Tarhazoute was recently converted from a reconnaissance contract. Kosmos described the Agadir Basin as “one of the last remaining underexplored salt basins along the Atlantic Margin”. BP has taken stakes in Kosmos’ acreage offshore from Agadir, but not in its Cap Boujdour Offshore Block, which is within the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Foum Assaka was licensed in 2011 to Kosmos and Pathfinder Hydrocarbon Ventures, now part of Fastnet Oil & Gas, led by John Craven, whose Cove Energy was a highly successful early mover in Mozambique.