Ocean Rig Athena drilling contracts executed for Senegal

Oil and gas explorer FAR Limited and its Senegal joint venture partners signed contracts for the use of the Ocean Rig Athena drill ship Wednesday for a drilling program in FAR's offshore Senegal Blocks.

With Ocean Rig Athena being under a long-term contract with ConocoPhillips, ConocoPhillips will be a manager on the new drilling program, which is expected to be operational in Senegal in the next few days.

Athena's firm drilling program encompasses three wells: two appraisal wells on the SNE-1 oil discovery and one shelf exploration well to monitor shelf area prospectivity. The program, which will include drilling, logging, coring and testing, is expected to be completed by mid-2016.

The FAN-1 and SNE-1 oil discoveries have given FAR encouragement that further exploration drilling will result in more discoveries offshore Senegal.

"We look forward to drilling our exciting next phase of Senegal wells with the Ocean Rig Athena," Cath Norman, managing director, said. "When this modern drill ship is combined with the experience gained from drilling the FAN-1 and SNE-1 discovery wells and the capabilities of the ConocoPhillips drilling organisation, we expect to deliver very efficient Senegal drilling operations. In addition, the joint venture has been able to take advantage of reduced deepwater rig rates and has secured the rig for a firm three wells and options for an additional three wells in the event of success."