FAR and its Senegal joint-venture partners Cairn Energy, ConocoPhillips and Petrosen are planning to transform the SNE (SEN, 32/11) Field off Senegal into a development hub, reported E&P magazine.

The consortium’s drilling programme so far covers three wells, two appraisal wells on the SNE-1 oil discovery that will include a coring and testing programme, plus one shelf exploration well.

Drilling, logging, coring and testing is expected to be completed by mid-2016.

FAR estimates the commercial viability of the SNE project to be 200 MMbbl.

Critical to the project is the third well (BEL-1) since it is the first exploration well to be drilled in the blocks following the discoveries in the FAN-1 and SNE-1 wells.

The hope is to build a resource base within tieback range of a possible future hub development over the SNE Field.

It will be drilled into the Bellatrix prospect which FAR believes to contain 168 MMbbl of oil on a gross, unrisked, prospective resource basis, leaving 25 MMbbl net to FAR.

The consortium has already slotted the Ocean Rig Athena drillship, currently in Angola for this mobilisation program.

The Senegal JV comprises FAR (15%), Cairn Energy (operator) 40%, ConocoPhillips (35%) and Petrosen (10%).

According to Stockpedia the FAR discover in Senegal was made in 2014.

The company raised A$40m via a placement of A$25m and an entitlement off of A$15m, to quote Malcolm Graham Wood, author of the Stockpedia post.