Operations
CYGAM OPERATIONS:
TUNISIAN PERMITS:
Jorf Permit
Rigo has recently increased its interest in the Jorf Permit from 37.5% to 100% by signing a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Pioneer Natural Resources, the former operator or the permit. ETAP holds an option to back-in to a working interest position of up to 50%. The exploration permit was officially granted February 6, 1998 for an initial term of 6 years which was later extended for another 2.5 years. Rigo has recently applied for an additional one year extension, expiring August 6, 2007, in order to finalize exploration plans, as the new operator, and to secure a drilling rig.
The Jorf block is located onshore east central Tunisia and covers 4,003 square kilometres (989,276 acres). The eastern boundaries of the exploration permit are within 50 kilometres of the Gulf of Gabes and major oil and gas pipelines traverse the permit.
A preliminary interpretation prepared in the late 1990s on few seismic lines indicated the presence of a very thick Permian reef sequence covering most of the permit. Massive features were interpreted as being reef build-ups (bioherms). Additional seismic data was acquired to confirm this interpretation and indicated potential total reef thickness, from lower Permian to upper Permian, of approximately 3,000 metres. These are the principal targets for exploration on the Jorf Permit. Although a few wells were drilled to the top of the Permian, none were located in the proper reef facies in the central portion of the Jorf block. Furthermore, the lower Permian section has never been penetrated and may hold the greatest potential for hydrocarbon accumulations.
The diagram depicts the current interpretation of upper Permian paleogeography. Biohermal reefs are interpreted to be present over a significant portion of the block. A typical succession of back reef, lagoonal and shelf environments is located south and west, while open marine, basinal facies occur to north. A very important control point is represented by the KLF-1 well, located along the southern boundary of the Jorf permit, where several oil shows in back reef and lagoonal facies established the presence of hydrocarbons in the Permian sequence. Two additional control points corroborating the reef build-up theory along the east side of the permit are represented by the Tebaga outcrops, where two upper Permian reef units 190 metres thick are exposed at surface, and by the KJD-1 well which encountered 1,400 metres of unequivocal reef facies with excellent porosity. Currently there are only two known producing Permian reef basins on earth, one in west Texas and the other in Kazakhstan. Seismic data indicates that the Jorf reef basin has strong similarities with the giant Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan.
A second potential objective in the north-western portion of the permit is represented by the Triassic Tagi sandstone sequence.
Cygam is currently reprocessing and re-interpreting all the existing seismic data, recently obtained from ETAP and previous operators, in order to finalize the best drilling location to test upper and lower Permian reef targets. Several industry partners have expressed an interest in participating in the drilling one of these reef structures pending final seismic interpretation.