Australian oil and gas firm FAR has started drilling at the Bambo-1 exploration well in Block A2, offshore The Gambia.
"The Stena IceMax drillship arrived on site on 12 November Gambian time and after completing preparations, has successfully spudded the well," FAR said Monday.
The Bambo-1 well sits around 85km offshore The Gambia, in 930 meters of water depth, and is planned to be drilled to a depth of about 3,400 meters. The drilling campaign is expected to take approximately 30 days.
The well is designed to drill into a series of vertically stacked targets with a combined estimated recoverable, prospective resource of 1,118 mmbbls (arithmetic sum of the Best Estimates, un-risked, 559 mmbbls net to FAR) and FAR calculates the chance of geological success for the various horizons to range from 7% to 36%.
FAR is the operator of the offshore block with a 50% working interest in the A2 and A5 permits with its joint venture partner, PC Gambia Ltd, a subsidiary of Malaysia's Petronas, holding the remaining 50%.
FAR has previously said that, if successful, a discovery could result in a standalone development which would be The Gambia’s first oil production.