Morocco/Gabon: Mazagan relinquished

Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas and Pura Vida Energy have decided not to enter into the next phase of the Mazagan permit and have agreed to withdraw from the block. Freeport will give Pura Vida $7m in cash and a quantity of drilling equipment as settlement for the second well obligation under their January 2013 farm-in agreement. A first well drilled on the permit in 2015 failed to find hydrocarbons (AE 307/18). Pura Vida said it intended to focus on its Nkembe Block offshore Gabon, which contains the Loba discovery, and had shipped the equipment there.