PESA Vic/Tas November Technical Meeting – Offshore Senegal

Prior to 2014, the Mauritania-Senegal-Guinea Bissau-Conakry (MSGBC) Basin was largely viewed as a petroleum backwater with low levels of drilling activity. There had not been an offshore well in Senegal for 35 years and there had never been a deep water well. This changed abruptly with large oil discoveries in offshore Senegal at FAN-1 and SNE-1, SNE being the largest oil discovery in the world for 2014. Successful appraisal of SNE has more than doubled the volume estimates and further drilling in northern Senegal and Mauritania by other companies has resulted in large gas discoveries which have cemented the MSGB Basin as a new global exploration hot spot. Jon will discuss the exploration history of the area in the context of the petroleum systems of West Africa.