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The MSGBC, or Senegal, Basin off the coasts of Senegal and
Mauritania in western Africa is one of the most exciting areas of
frontier exploration in the world. To date, there have been 168
newfield wildcats drilled in the basin that have discovered
approximately 9 Bboe of recoverable resources, with over half of
the volumes discovered in Senegalese waters. How might potential
discoveries impact the region—and the broader exploration
market? Jerry Kepes joins Upstream in
Perspective to provide an overview of geological attributes and
activity in the basin. Here's an excerpt of the
conversation:
Jessica Nelson:
The MSGBC or Senegal Basin off the coast of Senegal and
Mauritania in Western Africa is one of the more exciting areas of
frontier exploration in the world. Rivaled perhaps only by
activity
I realize there's a relationship for exploration along the
Atlantic Margin. In fact Keith King from your team was on the
podcast last year and educated us a little bit on the Atlantic
Margin. Are there more potential geologic similarities to Guyana
and Senegal that lead to the current fascination with these
basins?
Jerry Kepes:
Absolutely. Thanks for asking that. Because this is really some
of the most interesting developments that have led to, and are part
of this whole Atlantic Margin play. Which extends as far north as
Norway, and all the way down to the southern areas offshore, in the
deep water, of Argentina on the west side of the Atlantic, and then
South Africa on the east side. So it's a very exciting
business.
And that concept is something we've called Conjugate Margin Pair
Basins, because when you do plate reconstruction, parts of South
America and North America fit right in to Africa and Europe before
the plate split. Basically, you had very similar basins being
developed on both sides of the Atlantic. The Guyana Basin offshore
Guyana and Suriname where ExxonMobil and others have made such
extraordinary discoveries, they are analogous pair bases with the
MSGBC Basin on the other side, which is what we're talking about
today.
It's a very important concept, which has led explorationists to
think about what was found on one side of the Atlantic, and look
for basically the same geology on the other side of the Atlantic in
these paired bases.
This is significant because it gives ideas about how to
reinterpret plate concepts, as has been the case. And really that's
a concept that's been applied up and down the Atlantic Margin.
So, my answer is yes, that's a very good reason to see those two
things together, and think about how what you see on one side shows
up on the other.
Jessica Nelson:
And how about from a competitive standpoint? I know despite the
enthusiasm surrounding Guyana's success, the play seems to be the
exclusive domain of Exxon and its partner Hess. The MSGBC on the
other hand has garnered interest from several large firms,
including BP, Total, Exxon and Petronas. Is the potential
opportunity big enough to be a viable business for four companies
of that size?
Jerry Kepes:
Good question. Let me start with what happened the Guyana Basin.
First of all, what we've seen so far is that it's the Guyana Basin
portion offshore Guyana that's been successful so far. And there's
multiple steps to the story, but by virtue of first entry, or early
entry, ExxonMobil and partners ended up with a substantial part of
the offshore acreage in the Guyana Basin offshore Guyana where that
success has been.
Now in the eastern part of the Guyana Basin, offshore Suriname,
there are a number of other players. We haven't had success yet,
and it's obviously a more complex set of plays there. But there was
always the potential that it's extended to the east there in the
Guyana Basin and we would have more companies involved. And I would
say also that in board of the ExxonMobil acreage, where all the
success is, and by that, closer to shore, we now have a couple of
other companies starting to drill wells. Repsol will be drilling
there. There are a couple of others. So we may see that near
monopoly that ExxonMobil has if you will, actually begin to break
open a little bit.
Now coming over to the other side. As it happens, in the MSGBC
Basin the company that really got the plays going there was really
Kosmos on the one hand with respect to the big gas plays there that
were discovered. And, on the other hand, Cairn, which has been
involved with the oil discoveries that were made. So the starting
point was already different.
Once that early success happened, we had BP coming in and doing
a big alliance with Kosmos to develop the gas. We've had Woodside
join Cairn Energy as a later farm-in. Total has come in.
At the end of the day, the MSGBC Basin is bigger than the Guyana
Basin. It has more acreage potential. And by virtue of when it
started to move, we've had a number of players come in, not early
entry per se, but what's called fast forward. So the mix is already
quite different. We already have a situation where we're unlikely
to have that almost near monopoly on acreage that ExxonMobil has in
the Guyana Basin.
It's all perfectly legally achieved. Monopoly doesn't mean
illegal here, but we're already seeing a very different situation
on the MSGBC Basin side.
This excerpt has been professionally transcribed as
accurately as possible. Please note, some words and phrases may
have been unintentionally excluded.
