LONDON (ShareCast) - Tangiers Petroleum has revealed exploration drilling is set to begin in June for a key well offshore Morocco that was a 'potential company-maker'.

The AIM-listed outfit said a jack-up rig had been mobilised so that the TAO-1 exploration well in the Tarfaya Offshore Block off the Moroccan Atlantic coast, in which it has a stake, was on track to see drilling begin mid-late June.

In a statement on Wednesday, the West Australian company said: "The TAO-1 well is a potential company-maker for Tangiers with 190m barrels of net best estimate unrisked prospective resource [or a] gross unrisked best estimate 758m barrels."

Tangiers has a 25% participating interest in the Tarfaya block, which is being operated by Galp Energia who has a 50% interest, with the remaining 25% owned by Morocco's National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines.

Tangiers Managing Director, Dave Wall, said: "It is a very large structure located in shallow water within a proven play fairway and adjacent to an existing oil discovery.

"All the ingredients required for exploration success are present in the region, giving Tangiers, and its shareholders, a good chance of success at TAO-1."

Tangiers' broker Peel Hunt resigned in late April as the company admitted it needed to raise funds to cover its share of costs for TAO-1, before the company raised $5m in May.

Shares in Tangiers were up 6.25% to 12.75p by 14:00 on Thursday, having hit a 12-month low of 9.38% on Monday.

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