Project Profile
Location: north and adjacent to the major new Shaikan discovery, Iraq
Production: 26,000 bpd - 100,000 bpd targeted
Start-up year: July 2017
Reserves: 102.7 million barrels (2P)
The Atrush Block is located immediately north and adjacent to the major new Shaikan discovery announced by Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in January 2010. The 2D seismic data over the Atrush Block indicates that the Atrush structure is similar to the Shaikan structure. The Shaikan discovery was announced as multiple stacked oil reservoirs in the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic sections, with reported estimated potential resources between 1.9 billion barrels (P90) and 7.4 billion barrels (P10), with a mean of 4.2 billion barrels of oil. The Atrush Block is also adjacent to and on trend with the recent Bijeel oil discovery to the east, operated by Kalegran Limited.
Under the terms of the agreement, ShaMaran BV has acquired 33.5% of the fully-diluted share capital of GEP in exchange for initial cash payments totaling US$24.1 million, 12.5 million shares of ShaMaran, and a future obligation to contribute the next US$15.9 million in cash which will be required to fund GEP's operations (the company has over US$50 million in cash as of date to fund these commitments). Thereafter, each of the shareholders of GEP will fund operations pro-rata according to their participating interest (including its share of the KRG carried interest). All of the above mentioned payments, with the exception of the share consideration, will be added to a designated cost pool within GEP, to be repaid to ShaMaran BV out of future oil production which is attributable to petroleum cost recovery under the terms of the PSC.
The Atrush Block is operated by TAQA Atrush and is held 39.9% by TAQA, 20.1% by ShaMaran Petroleum Corp through its wholly owned subsidiary General Exploration Partners, Inc., 15% by Marathon Oil KDV B.V., (a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO)), and 25% by the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.
Operator:
TAQA: Operator with 39.9% interest (farm-in November 2012)
ShaMaran Petroleum Corp: 15% interest
Marathon: 15% interest
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG): 25% carried option