Irish independent Fastnet Oil & Gas is farming out half its interest in a deepwater licence offshore Morocco, with a wildcat well due to be spudded late in the first quarter of 2014.

The company currently holds a 25% gross stake in the Foum Assaka licence in the Agadir Basin, with South Korea’s SK Innovation – an affiliate of the SK Group – to farm in for half that share. The block is operated by Kosmos Energy, which is itself in the process of farming out a 26% stake to BP.

Fastnet said that SK will pay US $3.2 million in back costs and also carry its costs through the first planned exploration well on the Eagle prospect. The South Korean company may also carry its costs through a second well. Both wells are capped at a cost of $100 million each.

The frontier Foum Assaka licence covers an area of 6,478 sq km, consisting of four exploration permits to the south-west of the port of Agadir.

Following the completion of Kosmos’s farm-out to BP, and Fastnet’s own deal with SK (subject to partners’ pre-emption rights and government approval), the equity split for the licence will be: Kosmos (39.9%), BP (35.1%), Fastnet (12.5%) and SK Innovation (12.5%). State-owned has a carried 25% net interest.

Offshore