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| FAR's Blocks A2 and A5 |
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| Stena Drillmax Offshore Banjul |
An Australian Security Exchange listed oil and gas exploration and development company known in the industry as FAR is in venture partnership with Malaysia's PETRONAS to eventually develop Blocks A2 and A5 that cover 2,862 sq km located within the Mauritania - Senegal - Guinea Bissau (MSGB) Basin. The area lies about 30 km offshore in 50 - 1,500m water depth identified by FAR to contain an estimated 1.1 billion barrels of crude.
According to the release, Stena Drillmax arrived on site on Monday, 22nd November and after standard pre-drill operations, the well was successfully spudded on the day, signalling the start of the drilling of the test well.
Mindfully of recent criticisms leveled against the government, the Ministry issued an assurance that periodic progress reports will be provided to the general public "as and when necessary and available."
In a separate release, the Petroleum Ministry stressed the fact that the current operation is an exploration exercise to determine whether commercially exploitable resources exists in the area or not. The exploration well will be "drilled through 1,000 meters of sea water depth to a planned depth of approximately 3,100 meters...an extremely expensive financial undertaken", the second press release concludes.
