| Presentation of Essaouira Basin |
The Essaouira basin is one of the most promising areas of the country, with the greatest confirmed potential of hydrocarbons so far. A number of discoveries have been made in this basin, including the Meskala field, which is considered as the most important discovery made until now in Morocco.
Petroleum production activity began in the Essaouira basin in the 1960’s following the discovery by SCP of the oil field of Sidi Rhalem at the end of 1961. This deposit contains a number of interesting mostly oil-bearing reservoirs and has produced 970,000 Tons of crude, sent to La Samir refinery.
In 1969, the SCP put two natural gas deposits into production, at Jbel Jeer and Jbel Kechoula, and they have produced 239 million SCM and 531,76 million SCM respectively.
Currently, ONHYM has at its disposal four hydrocarbon deposits in the Essaouira basin:
- The condensate deposit of Toukimt that was produced since 1985 to 1998 and was turned off due to technical problems
- The condensate deposit of Meskala, produced since 1997, that now constitutes the most important deposit of ONHYM
- The condensate deposit of Zelten that has not been developed until now because of poor reserves.
- The gas deposit of N’Dark that has low-calorie content (50% Nitrogen) and is not yet developed because of the lack of commercial outlets.
The Toukimt and Meskala fields are a condensate deposit that can only be commercialized after treatment to separate the gas from liquids (condensate and water).
The condensate is gas at the pressure and temperature conditions of the reservoir, which condenses to its liquid state once raised to the surface.
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