ConocoPhillips has the option to take over as operator of the project it advances to development,, page-13

Far2,

Those 2 were awarded to CN's Flow Energy back in July2011, b4 FAR merged with Flow.

FAR brought Senegal etc & Flow brought WA457-458, Kenya L6-L9 blocks to the merged entity.

Here's the 'exploration' protocol in Oz in a nutshell.

Each year Operator's have to relinquish certain sub-blocks from their permits usually granted for 6 yrs tenure. These dropped sub-blocks r then recycled & flogged off with the existing 2D/3D or drilling data by the WA-DMP in a new round of Auction to new bidders & they rake in revenue in the form of Annual rent whilst the Operator justifies their plans of geotech study, shoot or review seismic data b4 committing to drill a well in the later part of their tenure. It's a tried & tested formula that works in each State's Mines Dept & is referred to as Land banking.

For the record, WPL drilled Dampier-1 in WA457 in 1968-69. In WA458 they drilled Patriot-1 in 2001 & Pleiades-1 in 2006, b4 relinquishing them from the original Permit.
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Hi Linc,

BH has a good closure with an anomaly like SNE somewhat at a shallower depth (at 2300m), so its worth a crack.

Central Fan also has 3 distinct anomalies at 3950m, 4100m & 4400m. So should b drilled to suss out the signature.

Whether these anomalies on the 3Dseis r from gas/oil/water, we cant tell, only the JV should b able to tweak & massage their sub-surface model. They can shoot high res 3Dseis & calibrate the 'amplitude' from these 2 drilled wells to pick the best location.

I think its early days for FAR to even think of selling its 15%. ENI did that mistake at Chinguetti. Sold its 35% in 2003 to WPL for US$77mil, & we all know what happened after that in 304 yrs with Tullow buying HDR & PETRONAS buying WPL's share.

I'd say to FAR's mgmnt drill atleast 2 more holes & based on the results find the appropriate funds. The SP will look after itself. They r onto something good here. U never know when the talent scouts from Woodside might wake up & run to their New Ventures Leader about 2 new oil finds in a country called Senegal.

I still shake my head in disbelief at the decision to drill Kora, when they had this 3Ddata for Fan & SNE, anyways that's all in hindsight.

Cheers