FAR HAS RECEIVED notification of a Presidential Decree from the Republic of Senegal confirming a one-year extension to the First Renewal Period under the Contract for Exploration and Hydrocarbon Production Sharing covering the Rufisque and Sangomar and Sangomar Deep offshore blocks.
Following an earlier Ministerial advice the extension granted to FAR will be for a one year period commencing from the date of the Presidential Decree.
FAR is Operator of three offshore Blocks and holds a 90 per cent interest with the balance being held by Petrosen (Senegal's National Oil Company). The extension and large working interest of 90 per cent facilitates the farm-out process which was initiated immediately following Shell's decision not to farm-in to the Blocks.
FAR has provided data packages to several large international exploration and production companies certain of whom approached FAR following the Shell decision. Detailed technical reviews are now in progress by the potential faminee group that includes companies with existing operations in Deep Water West Africa.
As was the case in the previous round the farmout process may take several months while companies undertake technical due diligence. Due to the commercially sensitive nature of the farmout process and confidentiality agreements executed as part of this process FAR will not make any public release until such time as a binding agreement, if any, has been reached.
