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N. AND N.W. AFRICA
Haggling for chickens
Brief history of the territory (disputed)
Western Sahara is bordered by Morocco (north), Algeria (northeast) and Mauritania (east and south). The Atlantic Ocean is on the west.
Early inhabitants were Berbers who, with later tribes, merged with Maqil Arabs, trading across the region from the 11th century. The Beni Hassan became the dominant group in Western Sahara, forerunners of the Sahrawis.
Spain was first involved in slave trading and fishing in the region. It took control of Spanish Sahara in 1884, running it as part of Spanish Morocco from 1939. Morocco and Mauritania claimed the area and in 1974 Spain, under UN pressure, offered a referendum. Algeria backed the Sahrawis (SADR or Polisario Front) who demanded independence.
Spain ultimately ceded control to Morocco and Mauritania jointly and a guerilla war began between them and the SADR. Mauritania withdrew in 1979 and Morocco secured de facto control. A ceasefire was agreed in 1991 since when there has been stalemate.
Both sides have sought international recognition but a referendum has not been possible as they cannot agree on who is entitled to vote. In 2006 Morocco offered devolved autonomy but refused an independence referendum. Demonstrations and protests still occur.
Western Sahara’s economy is based on fishing and phosphate mining allied to Moroccan aid.
Oil and gas summary
Western Sahara lies in the western Maghreb region of North Africa, formerly called the Barbary coast. The land is arid comprising a low-lying, flat desert along the coast, rising in the north to small mountains of up to 600 m. There are no permanent streams but flash flooding can occur.
Western Sahara has no identified indigenous oil or gas resources, either onshore or offshore. Because of the territorial dispute only around 60 wells have been drilled onshore and just 5 offshore. All but 1 of these wells were drilled prior to 1975.
The country overlies the Aaiun passive margin basin, one of a series basins along the North Atlantic margin of Northwest Africa and the northeast margin of North America. It contains Mesozoic and Cenozoic continental and shallow marine sediments overlying basement of Precambrian or Paleozoic age. It contains a number of potential oil and gas plays, particularly offshore in deep waters.
After discoveries were made in Mauritania in 2001 both Morocco and the SADR signed deals with exploration companies. Although several pulled out, concerned at the legality of drilling in the disputed territory, in 2015 a deep water well was drilled and reported to have had gas and condensate shows.
The Aaiun basin thus remains barely explored. Although the onshore part of the basin has limited prospectivity, there exists potential for oil and gas fields offshore, especially within deep water Cretaceous fan sediments analogous to those found elsewhere along the Atlantic passive margin.
However, the continued argument between Morocco and the SADR over ownership makes Globalshift believe that it is unlikely that the country will achieve any oil or gas production in the future without resolution of this dispute and commencement of considerably more exploration activity.
WESTERN SAHARA
Map and National Flag (disputed)
North and Northwest Africa
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
El Aaiun
0.51 mm
266,000
None
None
2
None
Government
Sovereignty over Western Sahara is contested between Morocco and the SADR (Polisario Front). Morocco is administered by a bicameral parliament under a monarchy. It subsidises Western Saharan to appease nationalist dissent.
The exiled government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a single-party parliamentary and presidential system, which would be changed into a multi-party system at independence. It is based at the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria and controls a part of eastern Western Sahara populated by nomads.
Both organisations have licensed blocks. For Morocco the state organisation responsible is The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) which was established in 2005 by the merger of the Bureau of Research and Mining Participations (BRPM) and the National Office for Research and Petroleum Explorations (ONAREP).
For SADR the organisation responsible is SADR Oil and Gas which represents the SADR Petroleum Authority.
Geology and History of Exploration
Western Sahara has no identified petroleum potential, onshore or offshore. The country lies on the edge of the West African Craton.
Most of the area, including offshore, is overlain by the Aaiun passive margin basin which was created on opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. A small port of the Palaeozoic Tindouf basin occurs in the northwest.
The Aaiun Basin is one of a series of passive margin basins that lie along the North Atlantic margin of Northwest Africa and the northeast margin of North America. It contains Mesozoic and Cenozoic continental and shallow marine sediments overlying basement of Precambrian or Paleozoic age.
The basin extends for almost 1,100 kms from the Cap Blanc Fracture Zone in northern Mauritania, north through Western Sahara into southern Morocco to the intersection of the North Canary Island Fracture Zone and the South Atlas Fault.
There are two sub-basins present separated by the Dakhla Fracture Zone. The northern part is the Boujdour sub-basin and the southern part is the Dakhla sub-basin.
The onshore eastern margin of the basin is the Palaeozoic Tindouf basin in the north and the Precambrian Reguibat Massif and Paleozoic fold belt of the Mauritinides in the south.
Stratigraphy comprises Triassic continental sediments overlain by a thick Jurassic carbonate platform. Offshore, below the present day slope and rise, the pre-Cretaceous may reach 8 kms in thickness.
The Jurassic carbonate platform was terminated in the Early Cretaceous with deposition of a thick sequence of deltaic clastics overlain by black shales and Late Cretaceous transgressive shallow marine to lagoonal sediments. These grade eastwards into continental facies.
The Late Cretaceous rocks were unconformably overlain by marine and then deltaic Paleogene sediments and a thin Neogene sequence of sandy limestones.
Globalshift recognises source, seal and reservoir rocks to be present in the Aaiun basin but no wells have been able to locate traps containing commercial accumulations of oil or gas. However it has never been fully evaluated due to disputes over territorial ownership.
History - Western Sahara has only a limited history of drilling and it has never achieved any production. Petroleum exploration activity began in the onshore Aaiun Basin in the early 1960s when the region was under Spanish jurisdiction.
The onshore area was divided into over 100 permits and by 1964 nearly 50 wells had been drilled by companies including Gulf Oil, Amoseas, Arco and Unocal. No discoveries were made although gas shows in Cretaceous clastic reservoirs were reported in several of the wells.
In the Tindouf Basin, a number of companies, including Phillips, were active, drilling around 15 wells between 1960 and 1967 with gas shows reported in two of these. The last onshore well in the country was drilled in 1973 prior to the departure of Spain.
Four dry offshore exploration wells had also been drilled between 1966 and 1970. After discoveries were made in Mauritania in 2001 both Morocco and the SADR signed deals with exploration companies.
Total and Kerr-McGee began prospecting on behalf of the Moroccan state company (ONAREP). However, in 2002 the UN concluded that, although existing permits were not illegal, further contracts would be in violation of the principles of international law.
Total pulled out in 2004 and Kerr-McGee left in 2006, pressured by NGOs and corporate groups.
Nearly a decade later in 2014 Seabird Exploration ran a seismic survey in Western Sahara’s deeper waters on behalf of Kosmos Energy who had held rights over the Cap Boujdour contract area since 2006 under a petroleum agreement with the Moroccan Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM).
A deep water well was drilled in 2015 in the block and was reported to have had gas and condensate shows.