Cairn Energy finds oil at Senegal well

FTSE 250 oil and gas company Cairn Energy has successfully drilled the SNE-4 appraisal well offshore Senegal.

The company said initial results confirm oil bearing upper reservoir sands of similar quality to those encountered as gas bearing elsewhere in the field.

A gross oil column of around 100m was encountered, similar to what was found in the SNE-1, SNE-2, SNE-3 and BEL-1 wells.

The results also confirmed the extension of reservoirs in the eastern extent of the SNE field.

Chief executive Simon Thomson said: “We have now drilled four successful appraisal wells in Senegal and we are delighted with the results to date of the multi-well evaluation programme, which has confirmed the scale and potential of this world class asset.

“We have gathered a very large volume of data from operations to date and we look forward to progressing our long-term, multi-field, multi-phase exploitation plan to maximise value in Senegal. We see clear potential to access additional cost savings from the current lower operating environment in respect of planned future activity.”

The SNE-4 well is the sixth well to be drilled offshore Senegal by Cairn and its joint venture partner and the fourth completed this year as part of a multi-well evaluation programme to help delineate the shape of the structure and establish deliverability and full potential of the field.

At 0830 BST, Cairn shares were down 0.8% to 213.30p.