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afrol News, 28 September - The British oil company Dana Petroleum Plc this week again confirmed the "significant potential" of developing oil production off the Mauritanian coast. New discoveries further confirm the existence of hydrocarbon on Mauritania's continental shelf. In its mid-year review, released on Wednesday, Dana Petroleum comments on its chances of finding exploitable quantities of oil or gas offshore Mauritania. According to the review, the "recent successful appraisal well at the Chinguetti field" from the company Woodside "and new discovery at 'Banda' in Block 4," had further "confirmed the significant hydrocarbon potential" of the Sahelian country. Woodside were scheduled to drill the 'Thon' prospect in the north of Block 6 before year-end, the review further informs. This prospect was lying close to the boundary with Dana's Block 7, "in which the preliminary interpretation of the 3D seismic data has identified several attractive leads in different horizons." The results of the Thon well were to assist in selecting potential targets in Block 7 for drilling in the second half of 2003, Dana Petroleum informed. In Block 1, "following very encouraging results from infill 2D seismic and the conclusion of farm-out terms with Energy Africa," Dana was currently mobilising a boat to acquire 3D seismic. This was to be processed and interpreted in the first half of 2003, enabling the Block 1 group to make a drilling decision by mid 2003. Woodside first reported discovering oil off Mauritania in May 2001 at its Chinguetti-1 deep-water well after many companies previously had drilled unsuccessfully in shallow Mauritanian waters. This has raised the hopes of finding oil in wide parts of the north-western coast of Africa, which basically has the same geological structure. Explorations are initiated or planned offshore Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia. Most companies involved in the exploration of Mauritania's offshore oil resources are well-known transnational and foreign companies, with Australia's Woodside company among the leaders. Planet Oil is the only Mauritanian oil company, holding a low interest percentage in existing fields (3 percent in the promising Area B).
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