In a statement yesterday, FAR said the 2050 square kilometre seismic survey would be the largest of its kind ever conducted off the coast of the West African nation.

FAR is partnering with leading US independent Hunt Oil to conduct the survey using the MV Symphony seismic vessel, under a share agreement with Italian group Edison to keep mobilisation costs down.

These savings have allowed the JV to extend the 3D coverage by 50sq.km to include prospect C1 in the southwest corner of the Sangomar offshore block, according to FAR.

“Integrating C-1 into the overall 3D grid offers significant advantages compared to reprocessing old Shell seismic data over this prospect,” FAR said.

The survey follows Edison’s recently completed 1500sq.km 3D acquisition in the neighbouring Rufisque Deep offshore block to the north.

“The aggregate of this combined activity is likely to substantially upgrade activity in this relatively under-explored but highly prospective northwest African margin,” FAR said.

The 3D survey is designed to validate several potentially significant prospects and a number of leads that Hunt identified, based on existing 2D seismic data, as well as additional prospects.

The company’s offshore concessions, located in the Mauritania-Senegal-Guinea Bissau Basin, offer potential for world-class oil accumulations, according to FAR.

FAR holds a 30% stake in the Rufisque offshore, Sangomar offshore and Sangomar Deep offshore blocks. Operator Hunt Oil owns 60% and Senegalese state oil company Petrosen holds the remaining stake.

“The northwest African margin is relatively under-explored but hosts numerous recent, sizeable and intriguing discoveries, including the Woodside-operated Chinguetti and Tioff discoveries in adjacent Mauritania,” FAR said.

“Large closures have been identified at the Aptian carbonate and Cenomanian sandstone levels, along with numerous Senonian stratigraphic leads with significant upside potential exceeding 1 billion barrels recoverable within the licence.”

The Sangomar-Rufisque offshore licence covers an area of 14,981sq.km over the shelf, slope and basin floor.

FAR claims that the contract terms are among the best in the world, and have been recently improved after the Senegal Government reduced the tax rate to 25%.

Canadian well about to spud

Meanwhile, the company said the Clear Prairie 3-8-90-12 well, at the Clear Hills West Project in Alberta, Canada, in which it has a 15% stake, is due to begin drilling in the next few days.

Under the terms of its agreement, FAR said it would participate in this obligatory well, with an option to drill a third test, of the normally pressured Lower Cretaceous Notikewin sand.

The sand is estimated to have potential recoverable reserves of 5-11 billion cubic feet of gas in the 7000 acres under lease.

Farm-ins to South Louisiana prospect

Also in North America, the company said it had acquired a 5% working interest in the Kicker Prospect on a 1017-acre lease block in Vermillion Parish, South Louisiana.

FAR said the prospect is supported by a combination of subsurface well control and 3D seismic and is on the northwest flank of the Kaplan field that has produced 300Bcf of gas.

The Kicker Prospect is a three-way dip fault closure that will be evaluated by a dry land straight hole test to a planned total depth of 13,200 feet.

FAR said the well, due to spud next week, is expected to take about 42 days to drill.