After several years of delay, Woodside said it had begun extracting oil from the offshore Sangomar field, about 100 kilometres south of the capital Dakar.
The floating facility has a storage capacity of 1.3 million barrels. At a depth of 780 metres, it contains both oil and gas and is expected to produce between 100,000 and 125,000 barrels per day.
High hopes
While Senegal's fossil fuel output is not expected to be as high as that of bigger producers such as Nigeria, there are hopes the oil and gas industry will bring billions of dollars in revenue to the country and contribute to transforming its economy.
"The start of oil production is very good news,” Charles Thiemele, Africa director of trading company BNG, told RFI.
“It is the realisation of a project that began many years ago and should help reduce the country's energy bill, which posed many budgetary problems."
The extracted oil, meeting European and Asian market standards, is intended for export and the national market.
Thiemele, an oil sector specialist, said Senegal should eventually be able to produce more than 200,000 barrels per day – approaching the production levels of countries like the DRC and Gabon.
The first development phase of the oil field, still ongoing with new exploratory drilling planned, is expected to cost between $4.9 and $5.2 billion. Read more
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