Mr Juwara, who was speaking in an exclusive interview with The Point, highlighted the reality that The Gambia and Senegal share borders to the north, South, East and on the coastline.
“The two countries share offshore international boundaries,” he set the premise, saying: “Therefore, to say that anything in Senegal is very close to The Gambia is stating the obvious. However, to specifically say that there are “lucrative oil reserves in The Gambia”, is, as you rightly qualify, a speculation! Because so far, we have not discovered any oil in The Gambia yet, needless to say, lucrative!”
First and foremost, the Energy Minister gives a prelude; the Petroleum Commission publishes an annual activity report on Petroleum Exploration in the national Gazette. Most of the questions asked here are actually addressed in either the 2022 or 2023 public annual reports.
Notwithstanding, Minister Juwara provides a clear explanation in this exclusive interview for all to understand what is really at stake:
Point: How many companies have actually visited Gambia for oil prospecting?
Minister: It depends on the timeframe under consideration; numerous oil companies have visited over the past years.
Point: Who are these companies?
Minister: The list of companies that have visited The Gambia over the past couple of years, included Buried Hill, African Petroleum, Tullow, Oranto, BP, Svenska, FAR Impact Oil and Gas, etc.
Point: What happened to the Licence issued to African Petroleum Company of Frank Timis?
Minister: The two African Petroleum licences for A1 and A4 blocks were first issued in 2006 and extended three times. The third and final extension expired in September 2016 and African Petroleum’s request for extension was denied.
Point: Did African Petroleum Company actually sue Gambia Government for revoking their licence?
Minister: The licence, as indicated above, expired in 2016 and thus was not revoked. Notwithstanding, African Petroleum did initiate an arbitration proceeding against the Government in 2017.
Point: What was the outcome of the lawsuit?
Minister: The government responded to the petroleum’s arbitration proceedings initiated by African Petroleum against it and defended its actions. In and around 2020 African Petroleum requested for an out of court settlement. The Government accepted the request and the parties sat and discussed, eventually settling the matter out of court in September 2020, ending the arbitration.
Point: Was BP issued Petroleum Licence and under what circumstances?
Minister: I refer you to a numerous press release between 2018 to 2021 made in relation to the process leading to the grant, the actual granting of the licence to BP and exit of BP. These were publicised and carried on the national media, I believe at least some of them in The Point newspaper. In these releases, the Ministry set out and published the licensing process in 2018, which was an open, transparent bidding round, then when the licence was granted to BP in 2019. This was publicised and in 2021, when BP exited, this was publicised.
Point: Is the Australian Company FAR involved in oil exploration in The Gambia? If so, have they started drilling?
Minister: FAR got an exploration licence in The Gambia in 2017, by acquiring participating interest from Erin but exited the block in 2022. Between 2017 and 2022, as part of the efforts to look for oil, they drilled two exploratory wells, respectively in October 2018 and December 2021. It is worth noting that ‘drilling’ does not imply ‘discovery of oil’ neither does it mean ‘production of oil’.
Point: It has been speculated that there is a lucrative oil reserve in Gambian waters very near where Senegal discovered their oil. Can you shed light on this issue?
Minister: The reality is that The Gambia and Senegal share borders to the north, South, East and also in the ocean, the two countries share offshore international boundaries. Therefore, to say that anything in Senegal is very close to The Gambia is stating the obvious. However, to specifically say that there are ‘lucrative oil reserves in The Gambia are as you rightly qualify, a speculation! Because so far, we have not discovered any oil in The Gambia yet, needless to say, ‘lucrative’! Notwithstanding, there are indications that there is oil in those offshore areas of Gambian jurisdiction and that’s why my ministry continues with efforts trying to find it. This process takes time and needs resources, which are both being dedicated to the efforts.
Point: Lastly, for many years, Gambia claimed to be prospecting with the available data for possible discovery. Is the Ministry saying that oil companies such as Buried Hill, African Petroleum, FAR, Oranto, and possibly BP all couldn’t discover offshore oil blocks for all the past yearS?
Minister: Looking for oil in the environment where The Gambia is looking for it is a highly complex and expensive undertaking. Notwithstanding, many countries in this region today are doing same as The Gambia. For example, Guinea Bissau, Serra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Liberia, and The Gambia have all been looking for oil in these environments for decades with not much success but that does not mean they do not have oil or have abandoned efforts to look for oil. What I am saying is the fact that we so far have not found oil does not mean we do not have oil or we should abandon efforts to find oil.
