Australian oil and gas firm Woodside has received the Senegal government exploitation authorization for the Sangomar field development offshore Senegal.
Woodside filed the final development plan for the Sangomar oil field early in December 2019.
The company said Thursday that following the exploitation authorization, the start of the "execute phase" of the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 was subject to final execution of the Host Government Agreement with the Government of Senegal and the approval and award of key contracts.
The Sangomar Development concept is a stand-alone floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility with 23 subsea wells and supporting subsea infrastructure.
The FPSO, expected to have a production capacity of 100,000 bbl/day, will process the oil before it is exported to the market via tankers.
The field was recently renamed from SNE to Sangomar. When it was discovered back in 2014, SNE was dubbed the largest oil discovery of the year.
The first oil from the field is targeted in early 2023. The FPSO will allow for the integration of potential future development phases, including gas export to shore and future subsea tie-backs.
Phase 1 of the Sangomar development will target an estimated 230 MMbbl of oil.
Woodside is the operator of the project, with partners being Capricorn (a subsidiary of Cairn Energy PLC), FAR, and Petrosen (the Senegal National Oil Company).
FAR managing director Cath Norman, said: “This is a momentous milestone for the joint venture and the people of Senegal and FAR is proud to have played an integral part in the discovery, appraisal and now commitment to develop the significant oil resource offshore Senegal. We thank all of our stakeholders and look forward to the coming weeks and months before first oil in early 2023”.