SCOTTISH-headquartered oil and gas independent Cairn Energy has taken a major step in its African "frontier exploration campaign" by securing a rig with which it aims to begin drilling off Morocco this year.
It also plans to use the rig to drill off Senegal. Cairn acquired a 65% working interest in three blocks off Senegal through a deal announced last month.
Cairn said, subject to obtaining necessary government approvals, the Cajun Express drilling unit would be mobilised to begin operations on the Foum Draa licence area, off Morocco, in the second half of 2013.
Morocco has recently seen considerable interest from oil companies, with US giant Chevron among the players pursuing opportunities there.
Cairn last year built what it describes as a "frontier exploration position" off Morocco's Atlantic coast with a combined acreage area of 8900 square kilometres.
It has a 50% operated interest in Foum Draa blocks one to three, acquired through a farm-in agreement last August. It has a 37.5% operated interest in the adjacent Cap Juby Maritime licence area's blocks one to three, which came with its acquisition last August of Nautical Petroleum.
Cairn told the stock market yesterday that it had secured a "long-term contract" with Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, for the deep-water, semi-submersible Cajun Express unit.
It added that the rig, which was on an "initial" one-year contract, would be used on its planned "multi-well frontier exploration programme" in Senegal, Morocco, and "potentially other areas".
Cairn has said it intends, by the end of 2014, to drill between two and four wells off Morocco and at least one off Senegal.
It declined to comment on the amount being paid for the use of the Cajun Express rig, which was built in 2000 in Singapore.
A Cairn spokeswoman said: "It would not be appropriate for us to comment on commercially sensitive agreements."
Asked about the other areas in which Cairn might use the Cajun Express rig, the spokeswoman replied: "Cairn has operational interests in a variety of territories and is constantly reviewing additional opportunities for optimising its resources in order to offer shareholders potential value opportunities."
The Cairn spokeswoman noted the company had not used the Cajun Express rig before.
Cairn said Cajun Express's historic performance indicated it was a "highly-efficient rig with low operating downtime".
Cairn is renowned for its success in India through a major discovery in Rajasthan in 2004.
The company, which has been building a significant presence in the North Sea in recent times through acquisitions under chief executive Simon Thomson, also entered into an exploration study agreement with the government of Malta last year.
Cairn has meanwhile highlighted its continuing interest in Greenland. It has invested more than $1 billion (£650 million) in drilling off Greenland, without making a commercial find.
Shares in Cairn dipped by 3.7p or 1.3% to 289.9p yesterday, as news of an unexpected slowdown in Chinese economic growth in the first quarter weighed on oil prices.
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