Savannah Petroleum Finds 14 Drill-Ready Exploration Sites in Niger

Energy firm Savannah Petroleum announced Thursday that 14 drill-ready exploration sites with prospective oil resources of 215 million barrels were found in Niger.

The prospects were found following detailed 3D seismic mapping over a 260-square mile area in the R1/R2 permit region, which is situated in the Agadem Rift Basin of southeast Niger. An additional 37 leads have been mapped by Savannah along the northwest and northeast areas of the R1/R2 license and a structure with a potential closure size of up to 15 square miles was found extending throughout the western section of R2 at the upper cretaceous and deeper horizons.

CEO of Savannah Petroleum Andrew Knott commented in a company statement:

"This update reflects the culmination of over nine months of technical work, with Savannah having had the equivalent of a team of six senior geologists and geophysicists working full time on this project. I look forward with confidence to the next phase of our analysis of the subsurface, as we move towards further seismic acquisition and the commencement of our drilling campaign on R1/R2."

Full-year results for 2014 showed that Savannah had no debt at the end of December after having raised a total of $72 million in equity during two funding rounds last year. The results also revealed the firm made an operating loss of $6.8 million.

Savannah Petroleum Chairman Steve Jenkins commented in the firm's results statement:

"Savannah Petroleum has made very solid progress in its first nine months as a public company. We are working closely with our hosts within the government of Niger as we look to continue to explore and evaluate R1/R2, located in the proven hydrocarbon fairways of the Agadem Rift Basin where over 1 billion barrels of oil have been discovered to date. Our team is highly focused on operational delivery and I do not believe any other company could have achieved more than we have to date, and that energy and drive is very much a mark of our future intent."