Work has begun on the Ntem oil concession off Cameroon after the end of a nine-year dispute over maritime borders.
Sterling Energy lifted its force majeure on operations for the Ntem Concession last month.
Now the firm’s partner Murphy Cameroon Ntem has begun drilling on the prospect, around 56km from the Cameroon coast, which is thought to contain up more than 400million barrels of oil and 170billion cubic feet of gas.
“We are very pleased that we have commenced the drilling of an exploration well on the highly prospective Ntem Concession,” said Sterling chairman Alastair Beardsall.
The Ocean Confidence semi-submersible rig is carrying out the work on the prospect, which sits in 1600m of water and is set to take around 70 days to complete.
The firm had declared force majeure on its offshore Cameoon operations in June 2005, after a dispute between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea over maritime borders broke out.