Moroccan shale giving up gas

Irish energy company Circle Oil, which focuses on North African basins, said it had remarkable success with the early results from shale basins in Morocco.

Circle Oil said preliminary drilling results from its Sebou concessions in Morocco yielded about 8 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Chief Executive Mitch Flegg said in a statement the results came in better than expected.

"The flow rates achieved during the well test are at the upper end of our range of expectations and the well will now be tied in to our existing infrastructure and put into production as soon as possible," he said. "This gas will be sold at fixed rates which are not subject to oil price fluctuations."

Morocco is one of the West African countries that have drawn interest from international energy companies eager to tap into unexploited reserves. Onshore, the country holds an estimated 20 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale oil and natural gas reserves.

Rival company Gulfsands Petroleum in early 2015 said natural gas was flowing at a rate of 10 million cubic feet per day at a test well in northern Morocco.