The forgotten Elephant

Well what a week , as often is the case the curtain raiser PE proved more entertaining than the main event SAMO , it managed to keep FAR on the most viewed list and  its punters where they are most comfortable , speculating on events we don't have the  answer for... Who needs updates...

However for me at least the most important event flew under the radar, ironically it was voiced by PC himself and was picked up by 34....PE might be entertaining but oil is the business we rely on.

"So, we’re working with the Government of Senegal and the regulator there to secure rights to be able to go and drill that appraisal well. "


That well being refered to is the appraisal of FAN and I think its reasonable to assume they are trying to secure the second slot with the Drillmax, something I have speculated on previously , it simple made sense for the JV to take advantage of its presence in the area.

It's a drillship they have had considerable success with , is at the same 2017 charge out rate and they can share mobilisation costs.

However more interesting to me at least is why FAN, afterall it would be years before it was used as a plug-in for SNE and an exploration well in SPICA instead could produce another discovery.

The only conclusion I can reach is that they are looking at FAN as another stand a lone project...as we know the FAN discovery was our first and it's huge, with 500mt of gross pay , covers a large area , they didnt find the water cut but at the location drilled ony had 30mt of net pay with a variety of oil grades...despite that, RISC have a 198 Mmbbls 2C placed on the result of that well ,that almost meets stand a lone requirement as it is...

In the past 3 years  the focus has rightfully been on SNE, with FAN shoved into the background due to the collapse in the oil price and being more expensive to develop...that situation is changing .

The implication as I see it is apart from booking more oil and therefore increasing shareholder value, it also opens up a chance to farm it out to another operator, sell it,  or any number of other possibilities.

If this proves to be correct then this drilling campaign has just had considerably more excitement added to it...FAN has the potential to be larger than either SNE or SAMO.

Interesting times indeed..

For those who like a bit of conspiracy , then FAN is the well that brought COP into the JV originally and we have COP's senior drill manager ( or something like that) aboard the Drillmax.. I don't know if he was poached , seconded to us or just out of work..hopefully seconded as we don't want to piss COP off anymore than we already have.

As always in the rather secretive world of O & G , behind the scenes a lot goes on we will either never know about or will find out after the event..

Cheers Whisky