A group led by Cairn Energy PLC working offshore Senegal will spud a wildcat in the deepwater Basin Fan play in the coming weeks.
Combine partner FAR Ltd., Perth, said the well, FAN South-1, will be the group’s first pure exploration well offshore Senegal since the SNE discovery in 2014.
All the activity since then has been taken up with appraisal work, but FAR said the wildcat will be drilled on completion of the current SNE-6 appraisal, which has now reached total depth with logging, sampling, and testing under way.
Fan South-1 is planned as an evaluation of the South Fan prospect, which lies 35 km south of the Fan-1 discovery, also made in 2014.
The prospect comprises several stacked reservoir targets and the well will be drilled to a total depth of 5,317 m in 2,139 m of water.
The well will assess the upside potential for improved reservoir presence and quality in the deepwater play. FAR says the prospect has the potential to contain 134 million bbl of recoverable oil. The company rates the well as having an 18% chance of success.
FAR has 15% interest in the prospect while operator Cairn, Woodside Petroleum Ltd., and Petrosen hold respective 40%, 35%, and 10% interests.