On 26 February 2018, FAR announced that it farmed out a 40% interest in blocks A2 and A5, shallow to deep waters of the M S G B C Basin, to Petronas. Petronas will fund 80% of total well costs of the Samo 1 exploration well up to a maximum total well cost of USD 45 million. Petronas will also pay USD 13.5 million to FAR for reimbursement of back costs and up to USD 1.5 million to fund FARâs non-well costs. The deal is anticipated to close on 31 March 2018 and is subject to approval by the Gambia authorities. FAR remains operator during the exploration phase and Petronas has a right to become operator in the development phase. The Samo 1 well is expected to be drilled in late 2018. The Samo prospect is a structure on trend with the SNE field in neighboring block Sangomar Offshore Deep in Senegal. From seismic data it appears that Samo has the same reservoir levels in Albian sands which were oil bearing in SNE. Therefore the chance of success assigned to Samo is quite high with 55%. Consulting firm RISC Operations has estimated a gross unrisked best estimate prospective resource of 825 MMb of oil for the prospect.  Paying interests in both blocks after the deal will be: FAR, operator with 40%, Petronas with 40% and Erin with 20%. The Gambia National Petroleum Company (GNPC) has the right to participate up to 15% in a field development. On 31 January 2018 FAR reported that it is in discussions with interested parties who wish to farm into blocks A2 and A5.  The company became operator of the acreage in 2017. In July 2017, FAR announced that its farm-in deal for blocks A2 and A5 was approved by the government of Gambia. In March 2017, Erin Energy announced that it was farming out an interest in the A2 and A5 blocks to FAR. FAR, through its wholly owned subsidiary Meridian Minerals Limited did acquire an 80% interest and operatorship of both blocks.  In 2017 FAR and Erin did reprocess the 1,504 sq km 3D survey acquired over blocks A2 and A5 in 2015 to mature prospects to drilling stage. Shelf edge play prospects have already been defined on the acreage and similarities have been noted with the SNE field in Senegal which is located 5 km north of the boundary of the A2 block. FAR estimates its share of the planned well at between USD 25 and 30 million. Â  Â 
Petronas has agreed to farmin 40% interest to offshore blocks A2 + A5 from FAR (40% op, GNPC 20%).