The company said these offshore concessions – Rufisque Offshore, Sangomar Offshore and Sangomar Deep Offshore – offered potential for world-class oil accumulations.

In an earlier report, FAR executive chairman Michael Evans said this opportunity represented a turning point for the company and could “catapult the company into the big league.”

FAR said the joint venture with US-based Hunt Oil – one of the world’s leading independent energy companies – would explore a deep-water play with “giant” hydrocarbon potential in the Senegalese portion of the productive Mauritania-Senegal-Guinea Bissau Basin. It said large closures were identified at the Aptian carbonate and Cenomanian sandstone levels, along with numerous Senonian stratigraphic leads.

FAR said the licence has significant upside potential exceeding 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

The Sangomar-Rufisque offshore licence covers 14,981 square kilometres over the shelf, slope and basin floor.

“Contract terms are among the best in the world, and were recently improved as a result of the government reducing the tax rate to 25%,” Evans said.

FAR will contribute about $US9.3 million ($A12.48 million) to a proposed 2000sq.km 3D seismic acquisition program, now due to start early in the fourth quarter.

The proposed 3D survey is designed to validate several potentially significant prospects and a number of leads identified by Hunt, based on existing 2D seismic data.

FAR said the north-west African margin was relatively under-explored, but hosts numerous recent, sizeable and intriguing discoveries, including the Woodside-operated Chinguetti and Tioff discoveries in adjacent Mauritania.

Participants in the Senegal project are operator Senegal Hunt Oil, which holds a 60% stake, First Australian Resources (30%) and state-owned oil company Petrosen (10%).