Testing its offshore mettle

With three recent offshore exploration deals, and a new licensing round planned for later this year, Morocco looks set to take its first serious plunge into its extensive and untested deepwater acreage. The state-owned oil company, Office National de Recherches et d’Exploitation Pétrolières (Onarep), hopes that favourable offshore geology will lead to new finds and production that can help to lessen the country’s dependence on oil imports, reports Paul F Hueper from Rabat.