The drilling program is scheduled to begin in late 2018 and is expected to take anywhere between 40 and 120 days for its completion. It will involve drilling of the Samo-1 exploration well whose primary target is estimated by FAR to contain a best estimate prospective resource of 825 mmbbls of oil.
The Stena DrillMAX is said to be a dynamically positioned, deep water drill ship that can operate in harsh environment and has vast experience in international and regional West African waters. This DP class 3 drillship has the capability of drilling in water depths of up to 10,700m.
FAR managing director Cath Norman said: “We are delighted to make this announcement as the Stena DrillMAX was our rig of choice given it completed a highly successful, efficient and under budget drilling campaign for our Senegal joint venture in 2017.”
The Samo-1 well is set to become the first offshore well to be drilled in Gambian waters for 40 years, as per FAR.
The Australian oil and gas firm said that the Samo prospect has two target intervals, and has several similarities with the giant SNE oil field.
FAR said that the Samo prospect is very highly rated and has an estimated chance of success (CoS) of 55% in one or both targets, as endorsed by RISC.
The company, in a statement, said: “It is rare to have an exploration prospect with such a high CoS but this reflects the adjacent discovery at SNE and the confidence FAR Limited has developed in exploring in the play fairway which is yet to experience a dry well.”
The Samo prospect is contained in the Gambia Block A2 where FAR is the operator through its subsidiary FAR Gambia with a stake of 80% and is partnered by Erin Energy, which holds the remaining stake. Both FAR and Erin Energy are partners with similar stakes in another offshore Gambian block – Block A5.
