Onshore Chorbane (Tunisia) Permit
The Chorbane permit covers 2,428 km2 adjacent to several onshore producing oil and gas fields. There is excellent operational access, and proximal access to oil and gas pipeline infrastructure, the oil export terminal at La Skhira and support services in the regional city of Sfax which can facilitate early development of discovered oil and gas.
The coastal part of the permit is lightly explored and part of the permit extends offshore into an unexplored shallow water area.
Sidi Dhaher Discovery
Xstate has a 10% working interest in the Chorbane Permit (Production Sharing Contract)
Schematic Chorbane Permit Location Map
(Map shows oil and gas infrastructure and numerous oil and gas prospects)
51 Million Barrels of oil in place estimated at Sidi Dhaher
The Sidi Dhaher oil discovery is located within the Chorbane Permit onshore Tunisia.
The interpreted 30 metre oil column in the Sidi Dhaher 1 well occurs in good quality Cretaceous age, Bireno Carbonate reservoir rocks. Live light oil was recovered from the reservoir using wireline sampling tools.
The oil bearing reservoirs are quite shallow at around 1100 metres which would result in relatively inexpensive appraisal and development wells.
A review of the existing seismic and geologic data was undertaken in order to incorporate the well results, and provide the basis for a preliminary estimate of the oil in place at the Sidi Dhaher discovery.
The Operator of the Chorbane Permit has provided the following estimate of the gross original oil in place ("OOIP") in the Bireno reservoir, calculated using probabilistic methods.
Mean OOIP estimate is 51 million barrels:
Derived from the following range of estimates:
- P90 OOIP 13 million barrels
- P50 OOIP 37 million barrels
- P10 OOIP. 110 million barrels
Assessment of recoverable volumes and resulting potential reserves are contingent upon completion of a planned flow test from the well.
Testing of the hydrocarbon bearing zones will determine the commerciality of the discovery and confirm that oil can be produced at commercial rates.
Other zones of interest in the Sidi Dhaher well are also still being evaluated for potential testing.
The Operator for the Chorbane Permit is currently in the process of finalising rig selection to proceed with well testing as soon as is practicable.
Other Prospects
There are a range of additional leads and prospects in the permit area, including the mapped extension of the Chaal gas discovery in the adjacent permit into the southwest part of the Chorbane permit.
The recovery of oil at Sidi Dhaher has enhanced the prospectivity of the Chorbane Permit.
Conventional wisdom was that oil did not extend to the west of the line of oil fields on the eastern boundary of Xstate's 2300 km2 Chorbane Permit.
Proven oil is now present on the western boundary of the permit substantially enhancing the prospectivity of all the other mapped prospects in the Chorbane Permit. Some of these prospects, such as the updip Chaker Prospect, have been surveyed and have similar risk reducing soil geochemistry anomalies to those surveyed at Sidi Dhaher.
Separately, in the south of the permit, the Chaal gas field in deeper reservoirs has been mapped to extend onto the Chorbane Permit and provides the opportunity for appraisal of an accumulation of up to 200 Bcf of recoverable gas.
The coastal area and shallow water offshore parts of the Chorbane Permit have hardly been explored to date and offer fertile ground for additional prospectivity.
Drilling Rig on Sidi Dhaher well site
