Benton Oil & Gas Co., Carpinteria, Calif., has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Senegal state-oil company Petrosen, giving it a major exploration and development position in the West African nation.
The MOU covers operatorship of and a 45% working interest in the 600,000-acre Thies onshore block in northwestern Senegal.
Benton also acquired exclusive rights from Petrosen to evaluate and reprocess seismic data for the entire offshore area of Senegal.
This encompasses 16 million acres extending from the Mauritania border in the north to the Guinea-Bissau border in the south.
The agreement calls for Benton to complete seismic data reprocessing and select blocks for additional seismic surveys and exploratory drilling.
Benton will hold working interests of 80-95% in the event of an offshore discovery.
The MOU also requires Benton to hook up Petrosen's previously completed Gadiaga #2 discovery well on the Thies block, drill additional wells, and lay a 41-km gas pipeline to Senegal's main electric power plant near Dakar.
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