Group makes second oil find offshore Senegal

Nov. 10, 2014
The group comprised of Cairn Energy, ConocoPhillips, and FAR Ltd. has made a second oil discovery offshore Senegal with the SNE-1 wildcat well.

The group comprised of Cairn Energy, ConocoPhillips, and FAR Ltd. has made a second oil discovery offshore Senegal with the SNE-1 wildcat well.

FAR reported that the well encountered a 95-m gross oil-bearing column with a net pay thickness of 36 m in the Albian sandstone reservoir. High-quality oil of 32° gravity was recovered at the surface, but all further information has been withheld by operator Cairn, which has declared it a “tight” well.

SNE-1 was drilled in 1,100 m of water about 100 km offshore on the Sangomar block.

The find follows last month’s oil discovery in the nearby FAN-1 well to the north that intersected a 500-m gross oil-bearing section in multiple stacked clastic reservoirs.

The two wells are the first to be drilled in deep water offshore Senegal in 20 years. Both have significant follow-up potential.

The results of both wells will be used to decide optimal follow-up drilling locations and determine the extent of the oil accumulations. Next round of activity is scheduled for 2015.

FAR has retained 15% working interest in the permits while Cairn, ConocoPhillips, and Petrosen hold 40%, 35%, and 10%, respectively.