The announcement of this “false discovery is not new, since it dates from 2022, assures elEconomista.es Jorge Navarro, vice-president of AGGEP (Association of Spanish Petroleum Geologists and Geophysicists) and professor at the Polytechnic University. According to him, “there was never a discovery, which we already clarified at the time within the AGGEP”. According to his explanations, everything was born from a misinterpretation of figures relating to prospective resources (i.e. no discoveries) provided by the British company Europa Oil & Gas, holder of the Inezgane permit off the coast of ‘Agadir (Morocco).
This alleged oil discovery which was spread in the Spanish and Moroccan media revolves around a document drawn up by Europa Oil & Gas to find a financial partner for the drilling of an exploration well on the Inezgane permit, located in the offshore waters of Morocco, off the coast of Agadir. “This type of document, known in oil jargon as a farm-out, is used to propose the sale of a stake in a permit to other companies,” explains Professor Jorge Navarro.
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The volumes of prospective resources (i.e. still undiscovered) corresponding to the 5 prospects which, according to this evaluation, presented the greatest potential, were detailed, specifies the document published by Europa Oil & Gas in 2022. For each prospect, volumes were provided according to different percentiles: a P90 (most conservative estimate), a Pmean (average estimate) and a P10 (most optimistic estimate), expressed in millions of barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), and distributed equally according to three exploratory objectives (targets): primary, secondary and tertiary, explains the Spanish geologist.
“The sum of the Pmean volumes of the five prospects for the primary objective amounts to 1,670 mmboe,” comments Professor Navarro, emphasizing that if the discovery of this quantity of oil were to be confirmed, it would be sufficient to cover consumption in Spain for three years, one year more than the figures published by the media. He explained that to confirm such a volume of oil (more than 1,600 million barrels), it would have been necessary to drill the 5 prospects, that is to say, to carry out 5 exploration wells, and for all of them to be positive by showing figures similar to those estimated previously. This scenario, although theoretically possible, requires considerable investment and a high exploratory success rate.
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And continued: “In the absence of any company interested in participating in the exploration, Europa Oil & Gas was forced to give up the permit. This is due to the fact that the next phase of exploration required, as part of contractual obligations with the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), the drilling of an exploration well, a commitment that the company did not could not honor due to his lack of financial capacity. Thus ended the story of the Inezgane permit. »
