Oil & Gas Projects in the Spotlight at MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power 2022 (By Elllit Connor, Energy Capital & Power’s Field Editor for the MSGBC region) – African Business

By Elllit Connor, Energy Capital & Power’s (https://EnergyCapitalPower.com) Field Editor for the MSGBC region

FAR is now seeking three prospects in Gambian with an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil. FAR has already taken shares from the Sangomar and Esperanca blocks. The MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power summit will attract investment delegations from Africa, Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Australia to shape energy developments across The Gambia and other MSGBC countries.

The MSGBC oil-and-gas rush is advancing across west Africa. With more than $9 billion in projects in Senegal next, and more than $40 billion for Mauritania, international financiers are now turning their attention to smaller regional neighbors.

In a regional first, the second edition of the MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power (https://bit.ly/3tHdkOx) conference and exhibition will not only attract investment delegations from across Africa, Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Australia, but will feature a pioneering roundtable session showcasing an attractive slate of new blocks on the market at the start of the second day’s programming.

The roundtable will feature Mauritania and Senegal’s $4.6 billion transnational Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) (https://bit.ly/3b8za6V) megadevelopment, with an estimated 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, Senegal’s Yakaar-Teranga with 20 tcf and Sangomar with 500 million barrels of oil equivalent. It will also showcase the latest in exploration, downstream and construction work from Guinea-Bissau (the former recently licensing 11 offshore blocks and the latter building a $300m LNG receiving terminal). The Gambia is certain to lead in this region’s hydrocarbon activity with its own potential oil reserves and Australian-listed FAR-seeking partners.

FAR acquired a working interest and operatorship for the A2 and A5 blocks off The Gambia in 2017. FAR also holds a 50% beneficial and paying interest as operator alongside Petronas, a mega-firm from Malaysia. Fast forward to December 20,21 and the firm completed drilling and formation assessments in A2 using the Bambo-1 and 1ST1 sidetrack wells with the Stena IceMax drillship. Although the firm did not find any commercially viable oil and gas reserves, it found a world-class oil resource in the southern block, which was dubbed the Panthera prospect.

The exploration wells were closed and abandoned following industry standards. However, detailed subsurface investigations were performed across both A2 and A5 blocks. This included seismic processing and laboratory analysis of drill samples. The result being that this February, FAR announced it had high-graded three of four mapped prospects for potential future drilling, namely, A2’s Panthera along with A5’s Jatto and Malo prospects. An estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil are located between these three sites.

Pursuant to this, immediately following the MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power Conference 2022, FAR is expected to request a contract extension under Gambian petroleum law, given that the firm’s current license expires at the end of September. FAR is seeking major oil investors to partially buy out their shares in this year’s farm-down of its Gambian interests A2 and A5. This extension could allow for three more years of exploration activity, including mandatory drilling. The farm-down takes place after the company’s Gambian project budget was cut from $9.56 million to $6.8 million this calendar year, and will assist in financing ongoing drilling works to locate and quantify this anticipated reserve within their licensed blocks.

The past twelve months have seen FAR withdraw first from Woodside’s $4.8 million Sangomar megadevelopment in Senegal at the end of last year and then from its 21.43% stake in PetroNor’s Esperanco Blocks 4A and 5A, plus Sinapa Block 2 in Guinea-Bissau this year. Subsequently, Sangomar is expected to come online mid next year with a 100,000 barrels per day oil production capacity, and the exploration phases of PetroNor’s Guinea-Bissau blocks may target up to 471 million barrels of oil in the Atum prospect. These developments show that FAR may not always be able to develop world-class resources, but other industry players can collaborate and jointly realize their potential.

The Gambia has big oil ahead of it. It recently crossed the $2Billion mark for its gross domestic product and is projected to grow by 5.1% this year. The country of west Africa continues to be responsible for operating a leading regional system of local content accountability through production licenses. Already active in the country are a slate of multinationals, including Norway’s Petronor; Britain’s bp; Ireland’s Tullow Oil; America’s Kosmos Energy and Malaysia’s Petronas. With such a bright future ahead for the country and its energy industry, Energy Capital & Power is proud to partner with the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation and the country’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in delivering the MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power conference and exhibition 2022 to highlight the nation’s role as an emerging west African power and hydrocarbons leader.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

About the MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power 2022 Conference:
H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power will once again take place in Dakar, Senegal, with the event serving as a catalyst for investment and multi-sector development in 2022. For more information, visit www.MSGBCOilGasAndPower.comContact [email protected]