FAR Limited: Senegal Resources Update
Wednesday 21 March 2018
FAR has completed detailed geotechnical studies and reviewed the contingent resources attributed to the FAN discovery and prospective hydrocarbon resource potential in its Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep (RSSD) Permits, offshore Senegal.
The RSSD blocks cover an area of approximately 7,500kms2 and are home to the giant SNE oil field, discovered in 2014 by FAR and its partners in a two-well exploration drilling campaign offshore Senegal. The discovery of the SNE oil field and oil in the FAN-1 well (that was drilled into the deepwater FAN prospect) were the first wells to be drilled in the deepwater offshore Senegal and opened up what is now a global hotspot for oil and gas exploration.
FAR and its joint venture partners have completed the appraisal drilling over the SNE oil field in the 2016 and 2017 drilling campaigns and the field is currently progressing towards Final Investment Decision (“FID”) in 2019 following the approval of the exploitation plan by the Government of Senegal which is expected by the end of 2018.
The SNE field development will be phased and it is anticipated that nearby discoveries that are within tie-back distance of the SNE field, will be developed in later phases. The focus of the joint venture has to date been to mature a commercial development of the SNE field before finalising assessment of these tie back opportunities.
The FAN discovery well results has been evaluated by FAR, and an Independent Resources Report for discovery has been completed by RISC Operations Pty Ltd (“RISC”).
The FAN discovery contingent resource estimate has been calculated based on FAN-1 well log interpretation and mapping using the 3D seismic and bare set out in RISC’s report and assessment of the probabilistic resource evaluation carried out by FAR in accordance with industry standard SPE-PRMS definitions. A development project is contingent on further appraisal, formulation and approval of a field development plan and financing.
The FAN discovery is approximately 20kms from a development hub planned at the SNE field and hence is well within tie back distance estimated to be approximately 30kms. FAR has assessed the SNE field to contain 641mmbbls oil* (96mmbbls net to FAR).
In the 2017 drilling campaign, FAR also drilled two new discoveries, FAN South and SNE North. Submissions have been made to the Government of Senegal seeking approval to undertake appraisal work programs to understand the potential commerciality of FAN South and SNE North as tie backs to the SNE Field development.
FAR has further reviewed the undrilled prospects, integrating data from the 3D seismic survey acquired in 2015, reprocessed data from the existing 3D survey and data from the 11 successful oil wells now drilled in the RSSD acreage. These prospects have been reviewed by RISC and an Independent Resources Report for these prospective resources has been provided to FAR. Table 2 below details the prospective resource inventory in the RSSD acreage as reviewed by RISC.