Rabat – Chariot, an Africa-focused energy company, announced on Monday that it received the green light to carry out the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Loukos drilling campaign, located in northern Morocco.
The purpose of EIA is to identify, predict, and assess potential environmental impacts of a project before it is undertaken. The assessment allows decision-makers to approve or reject a project, or to modify its design to mitigate potential environmental harm.
In a press release, the company said that the EIA covers a total of 20 well operations, including an initial drilling campaign of two exploration wells on the Gaufrette and Dartois prospects.
The approval equally greenlights EIA on 17 prospective well locations, and re-entry of an existing gas discovery, the statement explains.
Covering an area of 1,371 square meters, the Loukos site is adjacent to Chariot’s Lixus and Rissana offshore licenses and is also the location of the planned Anchois processing facility and pipelines.
The company believes the site has the potential to deliver early gas sales due to its proximity to a significant and undersupplied industrial gas market.
The British company further explains that the permit is valid for a period of five years, adding that civil works will commence to prepare the first well locations and access routes.
The news comes a few months after Chariot announced securing the onshore Loukos license.
Commenting on the news, Chariot’s Head of Gas Business and Morocco Country Director, Pierre Raillard, expressed his company’s delight at receiving the approval.
“This is not only an important step towards our initial drilling campaign but EIA approval for multiple additional locations gives us flexibility in future campaigns,” he explained.
Raillard added that the land assessment and civil contracting have concluded, with site construction activities already underway. “We are on track for commencement of operations around the end of Q1 2024.”
He concluded his statement by thanking Morocco’s operational team as well as the national mining agency, ONHYM, for the progress made thus far.
Chariot holds 75% working interest in the venture while Morocco’s ONHYM holds 25%.
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