By Omar Bah
The Gambia Democratic Congress has requested government to provide information regarding the country’s oil drilling status.
In 2017, the government announced plans to start oil and gas exploration in 2018 after issuing a permit to FAR Limited, an exploration and development company, to drill oil and gas offshore Gambia.
According to the government, the well, adjacent to the Senegalese oil blocks, has the potential to produce millions of barrels of oil and gas which could generate multi-million dollars in revenue for the country.
FAR Limited, Australian Securities Exchange listed from the New York and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, had acquired 80% working interest and operatorship in “the highly prospective” offshore Blocks A2 and A5 in The Gambia.
However, while Senegal has started drilling its oil, not much has not been heard about Gambia’s own.
The GDC said while it welcomes news of oil possibilities in The Gambia, it is yet to see or hear about the current state of oil prospects in The Gambia.
“We learned that energy group BP has exited from The Gambia, relinquishing its stake in Block A1 after it agreed to pay the government for suspending drilling at the licence. This block was supposed to contain 1 billion barrels. It doesn’t sound logical that BP will obtain a licence for block A1 only to quit due to low carbon energy,” the party said.
“How come BP didn’t know the facts before signing a contract with the government for the block? What happened to the other offshore oil blocks identified A2, A3, A4, 5 etc? The oil issues have raised more questions than answers due to the lack of transparency from the government most especially the Ministry of Energy. Senegal is exploring theirs and ours is characterized with a lot of unmatched stories,” the GDC said.
The party demanded that the government provide full details of the country’s oil prospect and disclosure of all efforts and transactions of the exploration.
“We have realized many new forged relationships with the Gambia government which might be backed by their interest over the news of oil possibilities in The Gambia. We are yet to get clear answers on the contents of the government’s press release on the oil contract with BP and other related issues on the overall oil prospecting and licensing of foreign energy companies over the years. We would demand information as the state issued a licence to African Petroleum Company and later was revoked by the government. We believe it must have legal implications and we expect an explanation on this matter,” the party said.
The party further demanded that the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum provide details of all the oil companies that visited the country and got involved in oil prospects before BP’s engagement into the business.
