Australia's Woodside ready for drilling off Senegal

The Senegal division of Australian energy company Woodside said July 12 it was moving ahead with a drilling campaign for the first phase of development at its offshore Sangomar complex.

Woodside Energy Senegal, the operator of the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep (RSSD) concession, said it expected its first drilling campaign for phase 1 development to begin this week.

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Drillers will utilise two drillships, the first of which arrived July 8 in Senegal’s waters. The next one is scheduled for a mid-2022 delivery.

Phase 1 calls for 23 subsea wells and a stand-alone floating production, storage and offloading (FSPO) facility that has a production capacity of 100,000 barrels/day.

Although primarily an oil production project, with first oil expected by 2023, project partners also envision exporting commercial quantities of natural gas to the shore.

Woodside completed the acquisition of the entire participating interest of Sydney-listed Far in the RSSD joint venture in early July.

The purchase price was $45mn plus a working capital adjustment of approximately $167mn to reflect the acquisition effective date of January 1, 2020. The final completion payment was approximately $126mn, after adjustments and remedying of Far’s defaults under the joint operating agreement.

Additional payments of up to $55mn are contingent on future commodity prices and timing of first oil.