FAR has announced it had executed a sale and purchase agreement with ONGC Videsh Vankorneft Pte Ltd for FAR’s entire interest in the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep project. RSSD operator Woodside subsequently exercised its right to pre-empt the sale on the same terms and conditions, and in January 2021 Woodside and FAR executed a sale and purchase agreement. On 28 April 2021, FAR shareholders approved the sale to Woodside.

The sale includes a contingent payment option to FAR dependent on oil price when the Sangomar Field is in production, capped at US$55m.

 The Sangomar Field development remains on track for first oil in 2023. The VLCC oil tanker has arrived at the shipyard for conversion to an FPSO, and work is ongoing on the external turret mooring for the FPSO. Other activities including subsea fabrication and preparation for development drilling are on schedule with drilling targeted to commence in mid-2021.

MODEC has been contracted for the operations and maintenance of the FPSO, including installation, commissioning and the initial 10 years of operations and maintenance

The new high-density multi-azimuth (HDMAz) 3D seismic data is being used to de-risk and plan the Phase 1 drilling and will be applied to potential Phase 2 and later development planning. The new seismic data is also being used to evaluate the other discoveries within RSSD, and further delineate the exploration potential of the blocks.

 The project was 24% complete at the end of the period and the Operator announced a US$400m increase in budgeted CAPEX for the project to US$4.6 billion.