North Sea oil firm Dana Petroleum has begun seismic scans in Cameroon as it looks to push into the African country.
The Aberdeen-based firm is looking to drill its first exploration well in the Rio Del Rey basin, near Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, by the end of next year.
Now work has begun to gather more than 350km of 2D seismic data for the prospect at Bakassi West over the next six months as part of a $31million exploration programme in the region.
The firm agreed a production sharing contract for the block in 2012 with the Cameroon government, with more than 400 people now being employed at the seismic operation in Issobo.
Soldiers from Cameroon’s rapid intervention force, the BIR, will provide protection for the workforce, a spokesman for the firm said.
“Dana’s teams in both Aberdeen and Douala, its environmental advisor CIME, the seismic contractor BGP, Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures and the BIR [Cameroon’s security forces] have worked extremely hard to get this project to the seismic acquisition stage, which I’m very pleased to say is now underway,” said Dana’s managing director for Africa, JOhn Downey.
“Our seismic base camps at Issobo are now fully operational thanks to the hard work and co-operation of all involved. We now have a workforce of over 400 people in Issobo, of which about 360 are Cameroonian nationals.”
Dana has a 55% stake in the production contract, along with Madison Cameroon and SoftRock.