Cairn Finds More Oil off Senegal

Senegal’s reputation as an oil and gas exploration hotspot has been further bolstered by another oil discovery by UK independent Cairn Energy.

Its latest well, FAN South-1 – Cairn’s tenth consecutive discovery – found a hydrocarbon bearing reservoir and oil samples were obtained of 31° API.

FAN South-1 is being plugged and abandoned, and drillship Stena DrillMAX is now moving to start drilling the SNE North prospect, the most northerly location yet tested by Cairn offshore Senegal.

"FAN South is our tenth well in Senegal in the last three years,” said Cairn CEO Simon Thomson July 11: “The results of FAN South will be integrated with FAN-1 and SNE to help the joint venture's ongoing evaluation of the large, deep water basin potential offshore Senegal.”

Australian independent FAR CEO Cath Norman said: “The discovery of oil in FAN South-1 yet again verifies the quality of the oil and gas generating system in our offshore Senegal permits and is another significant result.”  

Last month FAR filed for arbitration over its dispute with ConocoPhillips that relates to the three Cairn-operated licences offshore Senegal. Conoco sold its interests in the licences to Woodside, so Cairn's partners now are Woodside, FAR and state-owned PetroSen.

Map credit: FAR Limited

Mark Smedley