More oil than thought offshore Senegal

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Africa-focused energy company FAR Ltd. said a review of its oil prospects off the coast of Senegal was more promising than initially thought.

FAR has nearly 3,000 square miles off the coast of Senegal under license and achieved discoveries already in its FAN and SNE wells. Data from seismic surveys used to get a better understanding of the resource potential offshore Senegal led the company to increase its estimate of undrilled prospective oil barrels by more than 50 percent.

"The prospectivity of FAR's offshore Senegal acreage is extremely exciting," Managing Director Cath Norman said in a statement.

By the company's estimates, more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil may be in basins off the coast of Senegal. FAR is drilling its fifth appraisal well in the region and, once production actually beings, the company said it will proceed quickly because of its relatively low cost for development.

FAR, which has headquarters in Australia, said that its offshore costs have declined more than 20 percent since 2014.

During the third quarter, the company said the SNE oil field met the minimum threshold to be considered a commercial opportunity. That statement came less than two years after the field was discovered.

For production, a floating production storage and offloading concept is envisioned with a peak production rate of 140,000 barrels of oil per day.

The company said development planning is underway and the field could start producing oil by 2022.