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Mauritania (1) -- News -- 2010
Mauritania oil hopes rise with drilling project
01.01.2010
A new oil drilling project in northeastern Mauritania has revived the impoverished desert nation’s hopes of joining West Africa’s energy boom. French energy giant TOTAL said it will start drilling its onshore oil prospect in the Taoudeni basin near the Mali border in the coming days.
A big find would be welcome news in the poor sub-Saharan nation, racked by years of disappointing output from its once-promising offshore fields.
The former French colony, where militant group Al Qaeda is active, holds rich iron ore reserves and some petroleum, but is among the world’s poorest countries with much of the population relying on subsistence farming and herding.
Mauritania (10) -- Analyses -- 2009
Analysis
10.08.2009
TOTAL, the world’s fifth-biggest oil company, said it remained cautious about the Taoudeni prospect changing the energy landscape in Mauritania, putting its odds of initial success at a mere one-in-ten. “One should not cry victory,” said Pierre Desvoyes, Total’s head of Mauritanian exploration and production. He said it would take 100 days to drill deep enough to assess the field, and that any production would be years off.
“At best, if our estimates are confirmed, we will start in 2015,” he said. Other oil companies, including Spain’s Repsol and Germany’s Wintershall, are conducting seismic tests in the Taoudeni basin, but have not started drilling. Mauritania is one of a handful of West African countries identified by Latin America energy heavyweight and Opec member Venezuela for increased oil and mining ties.
But results in Mauritania’s young oil industry have so far been discouraging. Crude output from the country’s only producing fields offshore have slipped to roughly 10,000 barrels per day since they began pumping in 2006, providing only enough oil to supply an average-sized US refinery for two hours. Mauritania’s oil sector represents 2.5 percent of its economy. The Taoudeni prospect could change that, but only if the reserve is big enough to be profitable, according to Vetah. Its location more than 600km from the coast means it would require a costly pipeline to the sea.
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Bulgarian