The Australian oil company that has been granted license to test-drill Gambia’s prospective oil wells blocks A2 and A5 has been granted approval for a six-month extension to do a thorough evaluation of the SAMO-1 results, said government of The Gambia.
The statement came after FAR and Petronas has announced that their first test-drill on SAMO-1 has failed, triggering huge slump on the companies’ shares according to Australian media.
In a press released from the Office of the President indicated that President Adama Barrow has been updated on the results of the first FAR and Petronas offshore exploration in The Gambia. The prospect of finding oil and gas in the first offshore discovery has been unsuccessful.
The oil and gas explorers drilled the wire line logging at SAMO-1 up to the total depth of 3,240 meters. The drilling, which took almost three weeks, between October and November this year, was without a success. The offshore drilling started on the 22nd October, to the 9th November, 2018.
The geological assessments of the drilled well have indicated the presence of all the key components of Hydrocarbons but the preliminary results of the drilling did not find any oil and gas deposits at this specific location, thereby indicating an unsuccessful well.
However, the Government of The Gambia has granted approval for a six-month extension to allow FAR and Petronas to do a thorough evaluation of the SAMO-1 results. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in collaboration with Gambia National Petroleum Company- GNPC will continue to support FAR and its joint venture partners in their exploration efforts.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has been tasked to continue to provide regular information on exploration activities in due course.
