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Mr. Juwara said in an exclusive interview Key Pointshighlighting the reality that The Gambia and Senegal border each other to the north, south, east and coastline.
“The two countries share an offshore international border,” he set the premise, saying, “So, to say that anywhere in Senegal is very close to Gambia is a no-brainer. However, to specifically say that Gambia has ‘lucrative oil reserves’ is, as you put it, a guess! Because so far, we have not discovered any oil in Gambia, which, needless to say, is lucrative!”
First, the Minister of Energy makes his opening remarks; the Petroleum Council publishes its annual report on petroleum exploration activities in the State Gazette. Most of the issues raised here are actually addressed in the public annual report in 2022 or 2023.
Nonetheless, Minister Juwara provides a clear explanation in this exclusive interview, allowing everyone to understand what is really at stake:
Viewpoint: How many companies actually travel to The Gambia to explore for oil?
minister: It depends on the time frame considered; many oil companies have visited over the past few years.
Viewpoint: Who are these companies?
minister: The list of companies that have visited The Gambia in the past few years includes Buried Hill, African Petroleum, Tullow, Oranto, BP, Svenska, FAR Impact Oil and Gas, among others.
Viewpoint: What happened to the license issued to Frank Timis African Petroleum?
minister: Africa Petroleum first issued two licenses for blocks A1 and A4 in 2006 and extended them three times. The third and final extension expired in September 2016 and Africa Petroleum’s request for an extension was rejected.
Viewpoint: Did Africa Oil really sue the Gambian government for revoking its license?
minister: As noted above, the license expired in 2016 and was therefore not revoked. Nevertheless, Africa Oil did initiate arbitration proceedings against the government in 2017.
Viewpoint: What was the outcome of the lawsuit?
minister: The government responded to the oil arbitration proceedings initiated against it by African Oil and defended its actions. Around 2020, African Oil requested an out-of-court settlement. The government accepted the request, and the two sides sat down for discussions, which eventually led to an out-of-court settlement in September 2020, ending the arbitration.
Viewpoint: Did BP issue petroleum licences? And under what circumstances?
minister: I refer you to the multiple press releases issued between 2018 and 2021 concerning the process of awarding the license, the actual granting of the license to BP, and BP’s exit. These press releases have been published and reproduced in the national media, at least some of which I believe were published in the Key Points In these press releases, the ministry developed and published the licensing process in 2018, which was an open, transparent bidding round, and then awarded the license to BP in 2019. This was made public and was made public in 2021 when BP withdrew.
Viewpoint: Is the Australian company FAR involved in oil exploration in The Gambia? If so, have they started drilling?
minister: FAR acquired the participating interest from Erin in 2017 and obtained the exploration license in Gambia, but withdrew from the block in 2022. Between 2017 and 2022, as part of their efforts to find oil, they drilled two exploration wells in October 2018 and December 2021. It is important to note that “drilling” does not mean “discovering oil” or “producing oil.”
Viewpoint: There is speculation that there are lucrative oil reserves in Gambia’s waters near where oil was discovered in Senegal. Can you explain this?
minister: In fact, Gambia and Senegal share borders to the north, south, east and sea, and the two countries also share a common international border at sea. Therefore, it is obvious to say that any part of Senegal is very close to Gambia. However, to say specifically that Gambia has “lucrative oil reserves” is, as you said, just speculation! Because so far, we have not found any oil in Gambia, needless to say, “lucrative”! Nevertheless, there are indications that there is oil in the offshore areas under Gambia’s jurisdiction, which is why my department continues to work hard to find it. This process takes time and resources, and these resources are invested in this endeavor.
Viewpoint: Finally, for many years Gambia has claimed to be conducting exploration using available data in the hope of discovering possible oil fields. Is the Ministry saying that oil companies such as Buried Hill, African Petroleum, FAR, Oranto and possibly BP have failed to discover offshore oil blocks in the past few years?
minister: Finding oil in the environment where Gambia is looking for oil is an extremely complex and expensive task. Despite this, many countries in the region are doing the same thing as Gambia today. For example, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Liberia and Gambia have been looking for oil in these environments for decades with little success, but this does not mean that they do not have oil or have given up trying to find oil. What I am saying is that the fact that we have not found oil so far does not mean that we do not have oil or that we should give up trying to find oil.
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