More oil discovered off the coast of Senegal

July 11 (UPI) -- Oil was discovered again off the coast of Senegal, which companies said Tuesday would be added to the reserve potential in the emerging basin.

Scottish energy company Cairn leads a consortium probing the reserves in waters off the coast of West Africa. At its FAN South-1 exploration well offshore Senegal, the company said oil was encountered and work was under way to establish the potential for commercial development of the deepwater prospect.

Cairn Energy CEO Simon Thomson said FAN South-1 was the tenth well drilled in three years and the second to uncover oil and the deeper portion of the basin. According to FAR Ltd., the company's drilling partner, FAN South-1 could hold as much as 134 million barrels of oil.

"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," FAR Managing Director Cath Norman said in a statement.

The partnership working off the coast of West Africa started drilling in the FAN prospect in the deep waters of Senegal in May. When discovered in 2014, the reservoirs offshore Senegal were counted among the largest in the world and, by the estimates of the companies involved, could hold more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil.

The partnership for broader efforts offshore Senegal includes Australian energy company Woodside. Parties to the effort are at odds over the transfer of assets from Conoco Phillips to Woodside, which aims to transition to the role of the operator. FAR has said the government in Senegal hasn't yet signed off on some of the contractual terms to facilitate the move, adding Cairn was the operator and responsible for delivering the project development schedule. Woodside said FAR's claim was inhibiting progress.

Cairn and FAR Ltd. said the rig at FAN South-1 is moving to a prospect in Senegal dubbed Sirius. The companies said the best estimate of reserves there is 294 million barrels of oil.