The first time I visited Morocco, I saw postcards that featured goats perched in Argan trees. Sure, I thought, this is a gag. Surely they must have either tied stuffed goats to branches or retouched photos. So the first time I visited Argan Country, near Essaouira and Agadir, boy, was I surprised. There were real goats in the trees! Munching away! I soon found out that was going on. The goats were exclusively found in argan trees.Argan is a relative of the olive, and the goats were eating the argan fruit. Argan is grown exclusively in the southwest region of Morocco. It is difficult to cultivate and as a result, wild trees are treasured. Argan oil is prized in Morocco and recently has been discovered by the West. It has been used for centuries for cooking and cosmetics. The oil is extracted from the kernel of the pits.
There are many women’s cooperatives in the region that help poor women with employment and educate their children as well. It is fascinating to see how experienced “crackers” take the small pit (imagine an olive pit), set it against a large stone and with another small stone, cracks the pit open in one try. I’ve tried it and got a bloody thumb as my reward! Then the kernels are ground into a past with the oil running out. You can see this is a very tedious and time-consuming procedure that accounts for the high price of argan products.
The First Period between 1900 and 1928, was largely undertaken by the Compagnie Francaise des Petroles (CFP) and focused around in the Rharb Basin around oil seeps and geomorphological features. The fields were put onstream in the 1930′s and production averaged around 100 bo/d, peaking around 2400 bo/d in 1954. CFP discovered the Ain Hamra oil pool in 1923, which has a Late Miocene and Pliocene clastic reservoir in a sequences of thrusted sand lenses and produced a total of 90,000 barrels of oil.
The creation of the BRPM (Bureau de Recherchés et d‘Exploitations Minière) in 1928, signified the start of the Second Period of Petroleum Exploration from 1928 to 1958. The BRPM was tasked with developing the mining industry, which included the exploration of hydrocarbons, through Elf Erap and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (which later became Total CFP). In 1929, BRPM created Société Cherifienne des Petroles (SCP), which was specifically tasked to explore for oil and gas. The earliest seismic reflection techniques were used in the Rharb and Prerif basins in 1935. Although there was no significant exploration during WWII ,between 1939 and 1945, the “Société des Schistes Bitumineux de Tanger” developed and operated a 80 tons per day oil shale pilot plant in the Upper Cretaceous Tangier oil shales, in Northern Morocco.
The first seismic surveys in the Essaouira, Souss and Guercif basins were shot in 1955. Oil and Gas discoveries were made in the Prerif Ridges and in the Sidi Fili trend and around production rose from around 100 bo/d in 1939 to 2,400 bo/d by 1954. The first natural gas was discovered in the Essaouira Basin at Kechoula and Djebel Jeer in 1957 and 1958 respectively.
The 1958 Hydrocarbon Law enable foreign company participation on 50:50 profit share basis with the BRPM. The new terms successfully attracted foreign investors and by 1968 Agip, Apex, Elf-Erap, Exxon and Preussag were exploring for oil in most of the basins. In the 1970s over forty companies had held exploration licences in Morocco and more than 176 wells were drilled in most basins, through the period. Fifteen commercial oil and gas accumulations fields were discovered, including Morocco’s largest discovery at Sidi Rhalem (1961) in the Essaouira Basin and Exxon discovered Morocco’s only offshore field, Ras Juby (1969). By the end of 1981, cumulative production was 9 million barrels of oil and 35 BCF of gas and most of the new entrants had withdrawn from the country due to a lack of exploration success.
The Office National de Recherches et d’Exploitations Pétrolières (ONAREP) was created by the Moroccan government in 1981, with a mandate to explore for hydrocarbons in Morocco both by itself and jointly with foreign petroleum companies. Between 1981 and 1990, ONAREP drilled 85 wells with50 drilled jointly with international companies. This activity led to the discovery of the country’s largest gas field at Meskala in the Essaouira Basin in 1981 as well as several biogenic gas accumulations in the Rharb Basin. Fourteen companies were awarded 23 exploration licences during this period, but by 1993 they had relinquished all the licences.
In 1992, the government promulgated a new hydrocarbon law and in 1994, ONAREP promoted three exploration areas: the Inter Atlas region in the northeast, the Doukkala Basin along the Atlantic coast south of Casablanca and the offshore Tarfaya-Infi Basin. Between 1997 and 1999, foreign companies signed 16 exploration licences and four (Conoco Enterprise, Lasmo and Shell) signed offshore reconnaissance licences. Sixteen exploration and appraisal wells were drilled in Morocco between 1990 and 2000, fifteen were drilled onshore, which led to the discovery of three gas fields: Lalla Yto (1991), Ouled Brih (1992) and Zhana (1998). One well was drilled offshore (Tarfaya 1. 1990), was offshore plugged and abandoned dry.
The Hydrocarbon Law was amended in 2000 providing Oil and Gas investors with more attractive fiscal terms. In 2003, ONHYM was created as a merger of ONAREP and BRPM, beginning a new era with a dynamic strategy and improved synergy to adequately assess both the Hydrocarbon and Mining Potential of Morocco. The countery is still perceived as being underexplored in terms of petroleum exploration, with a comparatively low number of exploration wells in each basin. The number of exploration concepts tested has been very limited and many of the wells that were drilled did not reach their objectives because they were ei
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