Cairn finds oil off the coast of Senegal

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Scottish energy company Cairn Energy said it was reviewing multiple samples of oil pulled from an appraisal well off the coast of Senegal.

During testing, oil flowed variably at a rate of around 8,000 barrels of oil per day to 1,000 bpd at the SNE-2 well located in deep waters about 60 miles off the coast of Senegal.

Simon Thomson, the CEO at Cairn, said in a statement the company was upbeat on the well results, which he said were significant and commercially viable.

"The results help to confirm the overall scale and extent of the resource base in Senegal and further appraisal activity is expected to lead to future revision of the estimates," he said.

West Africa has drawn interest from international energy companies eager to tap into unexploited reserves.

Cairn's counterparts at Australia's FAR Ltd. said last year it was evaluating the potential for commercial operations in a basin said to hold at least 200 million barrels of oil off the coast of Senegal.

The Scottish company said its assets in the deep waters off the coast of Senegal could hold as much as 670 million barrels of recoverable reserves. Unlike the tough sea conditions in the North Sea or in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa may be more palatable to energy companies.