Discover Exploration Limited, an upstream oil and gas company, announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary Discover Exploration Comoros B.V. has signed a binding agreement to farm out a 35% working interest in its Production Sharing Contract (PSC) covering blocks 35, 36 & 37 offshore the Union of the Comoros to Tullow Comoros Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tullow Oil plc.

Map source: KeyFacts Energy

As part of the transaction, Tullow will become the operator, and will partly carry Discover for a 3D seismic survey and the first exploration well. The transaction is subject to governmental consent.

Simultaneously, Discover has signed a binding agreement to acquire (subject to certain conditions) the entire issued share capital of Bahari Resources Limited (“Bahari”), its 40% joint venture partner in the Comoros PSC.

Following completion of both transactions, Discover will hold a 65% non-operated working interest in the Comoros PSC (through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Discover Exploration Comoros B.V. and Bahari), while Tullow will hold the remaining 35% and operatorship (through its wholly-owned subsidiary Tullow Comoros Limited).

The Comoros PSC covers a deep water area of 16,063 km2 (circa 4 million acres) and is outboard of circa 200 trillion cubic feet (“TCF”) of gas in place discovered in Rovuma Areas 1 and 4, offshore Mozambique. The joint venture partners of Rovuma Areas 1 and 4 include Anadarko Petroleum Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), Eni S.p.A., ExxonMobil Corp., Mitsui & Co. and PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP).

In a Competent Persons Report dated August 2018, ERCE, the UK-based independent energy consulting group, estimates that two partly stacked prospects in Comoros blocks 35, 36 & 37 together contain gross mean unrisked prospective resources of circa 7.1 billion barrels of oil (+1.1 TCF of associated gas) in an oil case or 49 TCF of non-associated gas (+2.3 billion barrels of condensate) in a gas case.

Following ratification of the Comoros PSC in 2014, Discover and Bahari acquired andinterpreted circa 3,900 km of 2D seismic data, and conducted a range of exploratory studies. This farm out to Tullow marks the successful completion of the first exploration period. The partnership is now preparing to acquire a 3D seismic survey, the first ever in the Comoros.

Michael Blaha, Executive Chairman of Discover, said: 
“We are excited that Tullow joins Discover in this highly prospective license. With its extensive deep water drilling expertise, Tullow is a strong partner for this venture. Together, we look forward to unlocking the significant potential of our Comoros blocks.”