BP and its joint venture partner Kosmos Energy have made a significant gas discovery offshore Senegal during the drilling of the Yakaar-1 exploration well.

After drilling the Yakaar-1 exploration well to a depth of around 4,700mts in about 2,550mts of water, the partners detected thick, stacked, reservoir sands spread across a huge area believed to have good porosity and permeability.

Along with the Teranga discovery, the gas discovery at Yakaar is expected to lay foundation for a further LNG hub in the Senegal Mauritania basin.

Kosmos Energy chairman and CEO Andrew G. Inglis said: “Together with the Teranga – 1 discovery made last year, we believe this resource will support a second cost-competitive LNG hub.

“The result also confirms our view of the potential scale of the petroleum system offshore Mauritania and Senegal, in particular the basin floor fan systems which have now been further de – risked, with the well demonstrating that reservoir and trap both work in these previously untested fairways.”

The drilling at Yakaar-1, formerly known as Teranga West, was done using the Atwood Achiever drillship. Yakaar-1 well is located in the Cayar Offshore Profond block, about 95kms northwest of Dakar.

According to Kosmos, the Yakaar-1 drilling came across an estimated 15 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gross Pmean gas resource which it said was more or less the same as pre-drill estimates.

In three pools within the primary Lower Cenomanian objective, Yakaar-1 intersected a gross hydrocarbon column of 120mts. It also encountered 45mts of net pay during drilling of the exploration well.

BP Upstream CEO Bernard Looney said: “Yakaar-1 follows the earlier exploration success that led to the Tortue discovery and further confirms our belief that offshore Senegal and Mauritania is a world-class hydrocarbon basin.

“This discovery marks an important further step in building BP’s new business in Mauritania and Senegal.”

BP and Kosmos plan to conduct a drill stem testing of the Tortue discovery in the middle of the year. The partners currently intend to drill three more exploration wells in the coming 12 months offshore of Senegal and Mauritania.

Image: BP, Kosmos make major gas discovery during Yakaar-1 drilling. Photo: courtesy of suwatpo/Freedigitalphotos.net.