RAK Petro in Tunisia joint licence

RAK Petroleum, a closely held UAE-based oil and gas explorer, said it has signed an agreement to join an offshore exploration licence in Tunisia.

The company has agreed to buy a 30 per cent stake in the Hammamet offshore crude exploration licence from Canada-based Storm Ventures International, which will retain a 35 per cent operated interest.

Cooper Energy of Australia holds the remaining 35 per cent interest in the licence. The assignment has been approved by the Tunisian Government, said a company statement.

The Hammamet offshore licence area, awarded in September 2005 under a production sharing agreement, is situated in the Gulf of Hammamet and contains two ready-to-drill prospects plus several leads.

The first well, Fushia 1, is expected to be drilled in the third quarter of 2010, subject to rig availability.

"This is the first exploration project undertaken by RAK Petroleum outside of Oman and the UAE. The company is looking forward to further expansion in Tunisia and the North African region generally," said Abdulaziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of RAK Petroleum's Board of Directors.

The Fushia prospect is a complex of four structures separated by semi-parallel faults that have been mapped on 3-D seismic. These are on the same northwest trending structural high as South Cosmos field and are flanked to the south by the deep graben that is thought to source South Cosmos oil.

"A discovery at Fushia would provide a significant boost to the company's reserves base," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, RAK Petroleum's Managing Director and Chairman of its Board of Directors' Executive Committee.

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