Cairn Energy announces second Senegal oil find

This is Cairn's second discovery off the coast of Senegal in the past few weeks

Oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy has announced a second oil discovery off Senegal in West Africa.

The Edinburgh-based company described the find as "significant", adding that the oil was of high quality.

The discovery was made at its SNE-1 well in the Sangomar Deep block about 100km (62 miles) offshore.

According to Cairn's preliminary estimates, the well could could hold between 150 million and 670 million barrels of recoverable resources.

Last month, the company announced it had found oil at the nearby Fan-1 well.

Cairn has a 40% working interest in Sangomar and two other blocks in the area. Stakes are also held by ConocoPhillips (35%), FAR (15%) and Petrosen (10%).

Cairn chief executive Simon Thomson said: "This is a significant oil find for Cairn and Senegal and based on preliminary estimates is a commercial discovery and opens a new basin on the Atlantic Margin.

"On completion of the SNE-1 well, the joint venture along with the authorities in Senegal will evaluate all of the information to understand how best to take forward these basin opening discoveries with an appraisal drilling programme in 2015.

"Cairn has additional prospects and leads that offer further exploration potential across this large acreage position in West Africa."