West Oil ties up Gambia options 08.05.1999 PERTH-based explorer West Oil was set to sign a deal this week to firm up options on deep-water acreage off Gambia and tighten its grip on similar tracts held jointly by Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, writes Barry Morgan. West's partner, the West Australian geophysical consultant Ikoda, has finalised studies of structural leads in the Joint Development Zone and sources said the deep-water prospects off Gambia might also tempt the Australians into a production-sharing agreement with the government in Banjul. West Oil and Western Geophysical will make submissions on the Senegal-Bissau play once the countries have ratified block demarcations. The Gambian option may emerge sooner since outline terms were pre- negotiated, a company source said. The original agreement specifically foresaw a licence application for more than half of the 4110 square-kilometre area studied but Banjul later cut down the area. West now hopes that Gambia's Commissioner for Exploration, Kabar Jawara, will allow it to licence the area outlined in the original deal. Deep-water data was compiled by Ikoda for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment, including mesozoic- cenozoic sedimentary infill and tying in old data and work done on the Jammah-1 well drilled 20 years ago. Viable reservoir horizons have been affirmed on shelf-edge carbonate features while intra-slope Senonian prospectivity is significant in water depths less than 1000 metres , said Ikoda. The report highlighted a potential shelf-edge structural closure dubbed G9 and higher risk stratigraphic plays along the paleoslope . Satellite radar revealed anomalies that form a distinctive alignment in the deep water and may represent natural hydrocarbon seepages . There is potential for significant quantities of oil and gas. ------------------------- West mulling Gambia play 01.05.1999 PERTH-based West Oil is presently studying leads thrown up offshore Gambia following data reprocessing over the patch covered by a technical co- operation agreement signed nine months ago. Ministry officials are hopeful sufficient incentives exist for West, in partnership with compatriot geophysical consultant Ikoda, to convert the accord into a fully fledged production sharing contract. We have enough encouragement to justify moving to the next stage of exploration activity, said a spokesman for UK-based equity partner Fusion Investments, but we have no formal forward programme. West is also mulling options on acreage surrounding the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation's North Tano field. Gambian commissioner for exploration Kabar Jawara is expected in Accra next week to promote his country's offshore assets at a conference on west African oil prospects. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~