FAR takes outright ownership of Gambia offshore blocks

MELBOURNE, Australia— FAR Gambia Ltd. has assumed full control of blocks A2 and A5 offshore The Gambia, after acquiring Petronas’ 50% interest.

The next two-year license term for the blocks is due to start on Oct. 1, and FAR has negotiated with the Gambian government to remove an obligation to drill an exploration well during this term.

Aside from cutting its expenditure, this will allow the company to focus on a detailed geoscience review incorporating the results of the recent Samo-1 and Bambo-1 wells to ensure optimal placement of future exploration wells.

FAR has opened a data room for companies wishing to participate in a joint venture to perform and fund this review (and ultimately drill wells), and incoming participants could potentially assume operatorship, pending government approval.

Assessment of information obtained from the recent Bambo-1 well continues, with laboratory analyses of samples from the Bambo-1 & ST1 wells providing insight into the occurrence of oil at the well location, with the implications for the broader petroleum system.

Oil shows were detected during drilling of both Bambo-1 well and the subsequent sidetrack Bambo-1ST1. New studies, based on analyses of rock cuttings recovered during drilling, has confirmed oil at multiple levels in the well including immediately beneath the S390 secondary objective.

The S390 reservoir was also encountered to the east in the 1979 Jammah-1 well.

There were additional oil shows downdip of the Panthera closure in the Samo-1 well that, according to FAR, suggest a potential oil charge at both ends of the Panthera prospect. Bambo-1 ST1 may have just intersected the edge of an oil column.

Panthera is now emerging as a strong candidate for future drilling campaigns.

FAR has commissioned further laboratory analysis and a rock physics study of the Bambo-1, Bambo-1ST1, Samo-1 and Jammah-1 wells to determine how to discriminate lithology and fluid characteristics from seismic data.