Unlocking Deepwater opportunities in sub-Sahara Africa

According to Wood Mackenzie, around half of these future reserves are in Angola and Nigeria, adding that sub-Saharan Africa region should be a magnet for IOCs and internationalising NOCs alike. Majority of the opportunities in sub- Saharan Africa lie within the West African sub-region deepwater oil and gas landscape. Specifically, in Senegal, a major deepwater field is the SNE. The SNE is a deep-water oil field discovery located offshore in the Sangomar Deep Block, 100 kilometers south of Dakar. It was discovered by the Cairn Energy led joint venture as the world’s largest oil discovery in 2014. In December 2018, Woodside was appointed operator of the development and commenced front-end engineering and design activities. The Phase 1 development concept for the SNE field is a stand-alone FPSO facility with subsea infrastructure. It will be designed to allow subsequent SNE development phases, including options for potential gas export to shore and for future subsea tiebacks from other reservoirs and fields.

By Jerome Onoja, Ike Amos