FAR Finds More Exploration Opportunities In Blocks Off Gambia

Australia’s FAR Limited and Malaysia’s Petronas have found additional, material exploration opportunities offshore Gambia after a review of A2 and A5 blocks prospectivity.

FAR Limited said that the two companies have fulfilled the minimum work obligation for both blocks, gaining the right to enter the First Exploration Period.

This occurred following the completion of drilling and formation evaluation operations for the Bambo-1 well and Bambo-1ST1 sidetrack well in Block A2. The well and side-track were drilled, plugged, and abandoned using the Stena IceMax drillship.

The drilling fulfilled the minimum work obligation for the Initial Exploration Periods for both the A2 and A5 blocks, and the companies can now enter the First Exploration Period for each of the licenses on expiry on September 30, 2022.

The drilling and logging data obtained on the Bambo-1 well and the side-track well confirmed both the presence of a prolific oil source in the area and that oil shows encountered while drilling was persistent over several hundred meters, confirming key reservoirs had access to this oil-generative kitchen.

The Soloo prospect S440 and S410 objectives in the Bambo drilling campaign were found to have indications of hydrocarbons, but no significant oil volumes have been interpreted in the southern extension of the Sangomar Field in the A2 Block.

However, oil shows in the Bambo prospect S390 and S400 reservoirs, encountered in the Bambo1 and Bambo-ST1 wells have highlighted updip potential at both those levels in the A2 Block.

These prospective target intervals form the new Panthera prospect. Further mapping of the potential oil-bearing reservoirs has opened additional, material exploration opportunities, and FAR has high-graded three of the four mapped prospects for potential drilling – Panthera, Jatto, and Malo.

These three high-graded prospects each house multiple potential oil-bearing reservoir targets. Evaluation of samples taken from the drilling program remains under laboratory analysis and further work on mapping the deeper oil-bearing reservoirs is ongoing.

FAR will now start a farm-down of its interest in blocks A2 and A5 and in doing so, seek a carry-on the cost of a well for drilling in late 2023 and a contribution to FAR’s past costs.

Future work in Gambia

Following the drilling of the Bambo wells, FAR is revising the work to be undertaken in 2022 and accordingly, the budget for the works. The current 2022 budget is $9.56 million – 50 percent to the account of FAR and 50 percent to Petronas – and the company expects to reduce this by approximately 40 percent to $5.7 million for the 2022 year.

This will require review and voting for the amended work program and budget by the JV which is scheduled for March. According to FAR, Petronas is supportive of reducing the 2022 budgeted expenditure.

FAR acquired a working interest and operatorship in A2 and A5 in 2017. The blocks are located on trend with the adjacent massive Sangomar Oil Field off Senegal. The two Gambia blocks were assessed to contain substantial prospective resources.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com