“FAR Gambia Ltd, subsidiary of Australian Oil and Gas Company FAR are set to drill Gambia’s first offshore well in 40 years late this year. FAR currently holds the license to offshore Gambia blocks A2 and A5 together with Erin Energy who were the previous sole licensees of the blocks. Blocks A2 and A5 and two of Gambia’s most prospective blocks lie next to one of the regions biggest discoveries in recent times in Senegal.
The Australian company that has been licensed by Gambia government to drill two of the country’s four prospective oil wells,FAR, has contracted the Stena DrillMAX to drill the giant Samo prospect in block A2 offshore later this year.
Stena DrillMAX is a UK-owned Harsh Environment dynamically positioned DP Class 3 drillship capable of drilling in water depths up to 10,000ft.
This will be the first well in Gambian waters in more than 40 years, the company’s managing director Cath Norman told Australian media.
FAR chose the drillship based on its performance offshore Senegal last year for the Cairn Energy-led partnership.
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The Samo-1 well has a primary target that could hold 825 million barrels of oil. The structure is also said to share many characteristics with the deepwater SNE oil field to the north off Senegal.
FAR’s consultant RISC estimates the chance of success at 55%.
FAR is the license holder for Gambia’s two prospective oil blocks, A2 and A5.
Two other prospective oil blocks, A3 and A4, that were held by the African Patroluem are free for now.Eleven companies are so far shortlisted for the two.
By Mustapha K Darboe
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