Exploration started in the Coastal Basin as early as 1960s. Since then, nearly 45 exploitation wells have been drilled, out of a total of 78 wells, with 11 discoveries. The 3D seismic coverage is dense (covering more than 100,000 square km), while the 2D one is 100,000 km.
The discovery of Chinguetti oil field in 2001 was the first in the MSGCB area and opened up the Tertiary petroleum system in the basin. This discovery was followed by a serie of discoveries during the same decade, in particular Banda and Walata (formerly Thiof).
The other major event was the large scale gas discovery of GTA in 2015, block C8, which opened up the deeper Cretaceous petroleum systems. This important gas discovery was followed by BirAllah in the same year, following the drilling of Marsouin-1 in block C8. This led to revived interests in the basin, as seen with the presence of many major companies such as BP, Kosmos Energy, Total Energies, Shell and Capricorn.
Seismic coverage in the basin: more than 100,000 square km of 3D and 100,000 km of 2D.
Wells: 82 wells, including 4 wells drilled in 2022 in GTA’s development Phase 1.