Ireland’s Circle Oil has announced that it has won the onshore Grombalia permit located in Tunisia’s Cap Bon Peninsula.
Circle Oil added that it will be the operator and hold a 100 per cent working interest in the new permit. It also has the right to apply for conversion to production licence areas in the event of exploration success, according to the company.
The licence reportedly covers an area of 2,820 sq km and is situated in an area that includes existing oil and gas field concessions including Cap Bon gas field, Belli oilfield and the El Manzah oilfield. The Beni Khaled producing oilfield concession, where Circle Oil is now a 30 per cent working interest with state-owned partner Exxoil holding the remaining 70 per cent, is entirely enclosed within the new permit.
Chris Green, CEO of Circle Oil, said, “We are delighted to announce that our competitive work program bid for the Grombalia permit in Tunisia has been successful. We believe this under explored, but highly prospective, area, if successful, should bring significant added value to both Circle Oil and Tunisia. We look forward to working together with the Tunisian authorities towards this goal.”
Other discoveries such as Zinnia, Bir Drassen and Tiref reportedly exist within or are close to the licence area in the North African country. The main targets are the fractured Eocene to Upper Cretaceous carbonates and Lower Cretaceous sandstones, although other plays may be developed following collection of further data.
Estimates of in-place, pre-drill and unrisked resources on five separate structures prepared by external consultants range from 16mn barrels of oil equivalent to more than 200mn barrels of oil equivalent and totalled 480mn barrels of oil equivalent.
