Last week, Dow Jones Newswires reported Hardman Resources chief executive Simon Potter as saying Tiof could get the go-ahead in the next two months.

But Hardman Resources said on Friday that it had been misinterpreted.

“In fact, the Joint Venture Participants in Tiof have scheduled meetings during that period to review ongoing field studies and to assess economic viability with a view to committing expenditure to undertake further appraisal operations,” Hardman said.

“Until such time as the Joint Venture Participants meet it is not possible to determine the timing of any possible formal declaration of commerciality of the Tiof field.”

Once such a decision is reached the partners must submit a field development plan to the Government of Mauritania.

A successful production test of the Tiof-6 appraisal well was completed in the March quarter but Woodside said it would not make a decision about the commerciality of Mauritania until it had evaluated all necessary appraisal work.

Tiof is the partners’ second project in Mauritania. The other, Chinguetti, is more advanced.

Woodside has a 53.846% stake in Tiof while Hardman holds 21.6%. Other partners include ASX and AIM-listed Roc Oil (3.693%), and UK companies BG Group (11.63%) and Premier Group (9.231%).

The next prospect to be drilled in the Mauritanian exploration program would be Sotto, about 50 kilometers south of Chinguetti, due to start drilling July 31.

Potter told Dow Jones Newswires that Woodside's estimate of at least 130 million barrels for Sotto might be a "little light". Broker UBS has previously estimated the target size at 150-250 million barrels of oil.

Sotto-1 is the first of a proposed six-well program this year that will also target the Colin and Espadon prospects.