Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) revealed that it had recently made a farm-in arrangement with Total E&P Senegal to acquire a stake of 30% in the Rufisque Offshore Profond block in Senegal.

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Image: Petronas to take part in Rufisque Offshore Profond block in Senegal. Photo:courtesy of suwatpo/Freedigitalphotos.net.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the Malaysian state-owned company.

Petronas will be foraying into Senegal through the deal and will be partnered by Total, which will maintain its operatorship role with a stake of 60%, and Société Nationale des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) which owns the remaining stake of 10%.

The Rufisque Offshore Profond block is spread across an area of 10,357km2 and is contained in a water depth of 100-3000m.

It is located close to recent major oil and gas discoveries in the St Louis Profond and Cayar Profond and Rusfique Sangomar OffShore Deep (RSSD) blocks.

The company, in a statement, said: “The farm-in is aligned with PETRONAS’ Upstream strategy to grow its exploration portfolio in West Africa, where it is operator of an ultra-deep water block in Gabon and currently looking to explore further in the region.”

Total’s entry in the Rufisque Offshore Profond block is the result of two agreements with Senegal made in May 2017 to take part in the exploration activities in the country’s deep and ultra-deep offshore locations.

The first agreement signed by the French energy giant included an exploration and production sharing contract for the offshore block, giving the company a stake of 90%.

The second is a cooperation agreement with Petrosen and Senegal Ministry of Energy and Renewable Energy Development. Under this agreement, the French firm will take up studies to evaluate the exploration potential of Senegal’s ultra-deep offshore apart from assuming operatorship of an exploration block.

According to Petronas, exploration drilling activities in the Rufisque Offshore Profond block will begin in 2019 once the acquired 3D seismic data is interpreted and a prospect is identified and evaluated.

Recently, the Malaysian company made a deal to acquire 25% stake in an LNG export facility to be built in Kitimat in the Canadian province of British Columbia.