Senegal's First Offshore Oil Field Starts Production

Oil production began on the first offshore platform in Senegal on Tuesday, Australian operator Woodside Energy announced, bringing this country into the club of crude oil producing countries.

"This is a historic day for Senegal and Woodside," said the company's CEO, Meg O'Neill, considering the extraction of oil from the Sangomar field an "important milestone."

The floating field is located about 100 kilometers off the coast and has a storage capacity of 1.3 million barrels, according to Woodside.

The project aims to produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The field also contains natural gas.

Woodside's share in the deepwater project is 82%, while the Senegalese company Petrosen owns the remaining percentage.

Senegal also has a LNG project on its border with Mauritania, which may begin production in the third quarter. British energy giant BP is contributing to the project.

It is not expected that Senegal's production of fossil fuels will be as large as that of major producers such as Nigeria. It is hoped that the oil and gas sector will generate billions of dollars in revenue and contribute to accelerating the transformation of this country's economy.