FAR Ltd., Perth, has let a contract to Stena Drilling for the drilling of the large Samo prospect offshore Gambia with operations to begin late this year.
Stena will use its Stena Drillmax drillship for the wildcat, which will be the first well offshore Gambia in 40 years.
FAR said Samo-1, on Block A2, has two target intervals, the primary target having potential (P50) to hold 825 million bbl of oil.
The prospect is on trend and has many similarities to the company’s large SNE oil field offshore Senegal immediately to the north across the international boundary between the two countries.
FAR is operator and 80% interest-holder of the Gambia Block A2 joint venture as well as in adjacent Block A5, a position it acquired through a farm-in to US firm Erin Energy Corp.
FAR paid Erin an upfront sum of $5.18 million and guaranteed to fund Erin up to $8 million for the drilling of Samo-1.
The Stena Drillmax recently completed the successful drilling campaign in the SNE prospect in Senegal.