San Leon Picks up New Acreage in Morocco

San Leon Energy has picked up new acreage with shale oil potential in Morocco. The company was awarded four additional blocks; permits 13, 14, 15, and 16. The company said that these blocks can be mined and are candidates for the application of the surface retorting processes. 

These four new blocks are in addition to San Leon’s existing oil shale acreage of 6,000 sq km awarded in 2009 under an exclusive MoU dedicated to application of its In Situ Vapor Extraction process. ONHYM and San Leon have agreed to an amendment to extend the duration of the exclusivity period of the original MoU for an additional two years to March 2014 and to extend its scope to include application of any other ex-situ (retort) process.

Oisin Fanning, chairman of San Leon, commented: “We are delighted by the continued support received from ONHYM in extending our original MoU dedicated to in situ extraction for a further two years and for awarding us the additional blocks. We remain committed to early development of the huge potential of our existing Moroccan oil shale acreage and we now have two parallel strategies; applying our in situ IVE Technology to the deeper resource and, applying existing proven surface retort technology. This should help us to accelerate early exploitation and commercial production of this world-class resource.”