UK’s Sound Energy Starts Drilling TE-10 Well in Eastern Morocco

British oil and gas company Sound Energy has kicked off drilling the TE-10, the second of three planned exploration wells in Tendrara region in eastern Morocco, the company announced in a statement on Friday.

Located at 25 kilometers northeast the Tendrara’s anticipated production area, “The TE-10 well will test the North East Lakbir prospect in the Company’s Greater Tendrara permit.”

The drilling program will take an estimated 30-40 days at a total measured depth of 2,200 meters.

Last month, Sound Energy plugged and abandoned the TE-9 well, drilled to a total depth of 2,925 meters, after the company failed to find producible natural gas at the well.

The TE-10 well will test the North East Lakbir prospect in the Company’s Greater Tendrara permit and is located approximately 25 kilometers to the northeast of the recently awarded Tendrara production concession.

TE-10 will test “a material TAGI stratigraphic trap and a smaller TAGI structural closure,” the company said.

The North East Lakbir has mid case potential of 2.7 trillion standard cubic feet (Tcf) of gas originally in place (GOIP), a 4.5 Tcf GOIP upside case, and a 1.5 Tcf GOIP low case.

Sound Energy estimates a success chance of 14 percent.

The TE-10 well is located in a smaller structural closure, which has a mid case potential of 128 billion standard cubic feet (Bcf) GOIP, a 210 Bcf GOIP upside case, and a 75 Bcf GOIP low case. The company estimates a success chance of 26 percent.

On August 31, Sound Energy signed a new eight-year petroleum agreement with the National Office of Hydrocarbon and Mines (ONHYM) in Tendrara region. In October, the Moroccan finance and energy ministries approved the agreement to drill for oil in Morocco’s eastern Tendrara region.

The new petroleum agreement, named “Greater Tendrara Petroleum Agreement,” covers an area of approximately 14,500 square kilometers extending across eastern Morocco and “surrounding the development concession application area relating to the Tendrara gas discovery.”