Cairn Energy and its joint venture partners in Senegal have started a new 3D seismic survey over their three permits offshore Senegal
The new survey is being conducted over Sangomar Deep, Sangomar and Rufisque permits offshore Senegal using the Polarcus Adira 3D seismic vessel. It will cover and area of 2,603 sqkm and acquire data in the north and east parts of the permits where there is currently no 3D seismic data coverage. Data acquisition is expected to be completed in Q4 2015 and the processing of the data is expected to be finished by mid-2016.
The joint venture for the permits has Cairn Energy, FAR Limited and Société des Pétroles du Sénégal as partners, with Cairn being the operator for the permits. The seismic survey is an integral part of the joint venture’s evaluation program of the Sangomar Deep, Sangomar and Rufisque permits.
The evaluation programme includes three wells that are expected to start in early Q4 2015. Two appraisal wells will be drilled on the SNE discovery and the Bellatrix prospect will be evaluated with an exploration well.
The earlier successful FAN-1 and SNE-1 oil discoveries have encouraged the joint venture partners that further exploration drilling offshore Senegal may yield more success. According to estimates from FAR Limited, 1.5bn barrels of gross prospective resources lie within prospects mapped using existing 3D seismic data. The company expects that the new 3D seismic will add to this inventory of exploration prospects.
