African Petroleum, an independent oil and gas exploration company, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed international exploration and production company regarding Licenses A1 and A4, offshore Gambia.

The company said that the LOI represents a non-binding commercial proposal regarding the possible acquisition of interests in Licenses A1 and A4 where African Petroleum holds a 100 percent operated working interest in both blocks.

The proposal is conditional upon African Petroleum confirming the extension of the exploration periods of both licenses by at least 12 months by the Government of Gambia and is subject to ongoing negotiations. To remind, the end of the exploration periods for both licenses was on September 1, 2016.

African Petroleum CEO, Jens Pace, said: “We are pleased to have formalized our discussions with this potential partner through the signing of a non-binding LOI. While conversion of this LOI into any commercial agreement is subject to a number of conditions, including our ability to obtain an extension to the exploration period of both blocks, we are encouraged by the level of industry interest that we continue to generate in our portfolio.

“Based on our advanced discussions with the relevant authorities in Gambia, we remain confident that we will be able to achieve a satisfactory outcome that enables us to move forward with exploration activity of these exciting assets.”

The company completed a 3D seismic survey with data covering 2,500km2 and has found several analog leads and prospects in this acreage to that of the recent discoveries and appraisal wells drilled by Cairn Energy in Senegal.

On March 13, 2015, African Petroleum announced that independent petroleum consultant ERC Equipoise had prepared an updated assessment of prospective oil resources attributable to the company’s Gambian licenses. The assessment estimates the net unrisked mean prospective oil resources in the licenses stands at 3,079 MMstb.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com