The British company Predator Oil & Gas continues to bet on the natural gas project in the Guercif region of eastern Morocco, even though recent drilling operations have failed to confirm the presence of commercially viable gas reserves.
The company had begun drilling the MOU-5 exploratory well on March 3, 2025, in a step it considered at the time crucial for assessing the true potential of the gas basin, which estimates suggest could contain up to 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
During this phase, the company focused on targeting relatively shallow gas reservoirs to reduce drilling costs and accelerate the production process if commercially exploitable quantities were confirmed. It also bet on Guercif’s strategic location near national gas infrastructure, which would facilitate connecting any future production to transmission and distribution networks.
However, the results of the MOU-5 well, which the company disclosed in its 2025 annual report, fell short of expectations. It turned out that the target geological formation is located 233 meters deeper than anticipated, exceeding the structural limits suitable for commercially viable gas production.
This result adds to the results of the MOU-4 well drilled in 2023, which also failed to prove the commercial viability of gas discoveries in the area.
Despite this, the company insists that these results do not mean the end of the project, indicating that the available geological data still supports the presence of significant potential within the Guercif basin. Net confirmed resources in the main TGB-6 target are estimated at approximately 61.95 billion cubic feet, while potential resources across the entire basin reach about 5.9 trillion cubic feet.
In an attempt to give the project a new boost, Predator is currently seeking a strategic partner to fully finance the drilling of the MOU-6 well, in addition to financing a pilot gas development project. The company is also requesting reimbursement of up to $24.6 million in exploration costs incurred on the previous five wells.
In this context, Stephen Boldy, the company’s non-executive chairman, confirmed that Predator remains committed to evaluating and developing the gas discoveries previously identified in the MOU-1 and MOU-3 areas, through new partnerships and a phased development plan.
Helium: An Unexpected Opportunity
Despite the disappointment related to gas, the latest well carried positive indicators regarding potential helium gas resources, a strategic resource witnessing growing global demand in technological and medical industries.
Estimates from Scorpion Geoscience suggest that potential helium resources in the area could range between 104 and 599 billion cubic feet, opening new investment horizons for the project that could partially compensate for the setbacks in gas discoveries.
However, developing these resources would require a separate legal and regulatory procedure from the natural gas sector, in coordination with the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) and the relevant Moroccan authorities.
A Project Within Morocco’s Energy Strategy
The Guercif project comes within the context of Morocco’s efforts to enhance its energy security and reduce its dependence on energy imports. The importance of developing local gas resources has increased since the closure of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline in 2021, prompting the kingdom to accelerate its efforts to diversify energy supply sources.
Although the results achieved so far have not confirmed the presence of commercially exploitable gas reserves, the Guercif project remains one of the most prominent gas exploration bets in Morocco, especially given the geological potential indicating the presence of significant resources whose economic viability has not been definitively settled.
