Paper submitted to EAGE Annual 2026
Summary
The Mauritania-Senegal margin has experienced significant exploration success with the discovery of the world-class Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim (GTA), Sangomar and BirAllah fields in the last 10-11 years, establishing it as one of Africa’s most exciting hotspots for exploration and development.
Historically, exploration drilling along the margin typically focused on the inboard Cenozoic saltrelated plays (e.g. Chinguetti, Banda, Tiof, Tevet), and Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene clastic targets on the shelf (e.g. Aigrette, Pelican, Lamatin, Fregate wells). As exploration stepped out into the deepwater, the focus shifted to target Mid to Upper Cretaceous deep-marine clastics (e.g. at GTA in 2015). Despite this major discovery and additional large discoveries at Orca-1 and Marsouin-1, the majority of the deepwater and ultra-deepwater remains largely untested.
The Mauritanian margin contains vast amounts of remaining potential within both untested plays and undrilled structures in existing plays. These include Cenozoic salt-draped channels in the inboard Miocene salt basin, syn-rift plays in the sub-salt units (analogous to similar plays offshore Morocco), analogues to the Sangomar and FAN fields in Senegal and Jurassic carbonate or mixed clastic-carbonate targets situated within the extensive platform area. Deepwater to ultra-deepwater plays include Mid to Upper Cretaceous channel and fan systems and mixed contourite-turbidite deposits.