The spokesman for Los Verdes Canarios, Rafael Rodrígues, considered "hopeful" the news released by the company Cairn Energy PLC, which has not found oil in the Moroccan waters near the Canary Islands.
According to the operator, drilling operations began at the end of October 2013 in the FD-1 well, located 1,500 meters deep and 120 kilometers from the coast of Morocco, in the Foum Draa block. The main objective of the well was a range of slopes formed by clastic sediments and a complex of channels in deep waters of the Late Jurassic or early Cretaceous, according to this formation.
According to the company's press release, the FD-1 well has reached a total depth of 5,255 meters but "has not found reserves, although it has crossed the oldest stratigraphic section that any exploration well in the vicinity of Morocco has carried out." "The samples of the gas obtained in the well and its composition ratios confirm an active thermogenic petroleum system. The well is now being plugged and abandoned," they explained from the company.
The company announces that the next well in the exploration program is in the Juby Maritime III block in Morocco and its objective will be a Middle Jurassic carbonate survey, located 100 meters deep and where the primary objective is about 1,000 meters below the 1969 Upper Jurassic discovery at Cape Juby. Operations will begin at Cape Juby once the FD-1 well is successfully plugged and abandoned.
Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy PLC, has pointed out that in Cairn's first well in the multi-well drilling program on the margins of the Atlantic "they have not found the expected reserves but have confirmed a deepwater hydrocarbon system." "Further analysis of the data is required, as a number of ongoing exploration prospects in the Foum Draa block must be evaluated," the company says.
According to the spokesman for Los Verdes, "Repsol would do better to invest in renewable energies, which are a sustainable and profitable bet, instead of playing the oil lottery in waters near the Canary Islands."
