Morocco grants oil drilling licenses to foreign group

Morocco granted a South African-Swede Group three oil drilling licenses off the shores of the southern town of Tiznit.

The related accord was initialed Thursday by head of the Moroccan oil company ONAREP, Ms. Amina Benkhadra, and director of South Africa's Energy Africa Limited, Willem Adrian Nel, and President of Sweden's Taurus Oil AB, Kjell Sture Stenberg.

The three licenses, Tiznit offshore I, Tiznit Offshore II and Tiznit offshore III, cover an area of 6,000 square kilometers.

The licenses have an eight-year durability. During this period, the group will undertake a three-dimension seismic search.

The Swede Taurus company already holds an exclusive reconnaissance permit in the area and the works carried out showed encouraging results and an interesting oil potential, ONAREP said.

The Swede society decided to start drilling operations in light of these results.

The South African Energy Africa Limited also holds another license for drilling in southern Morocco.

Several world oil companies are showing growing interest in Morocco's oil potential since the announcement last year of the first find in Talsint, south-eastern Morocco.