Operations started Friday for the first pure exploration well off the coast of Senegal since a major discovery in 2014, Africa-focused FAR Ltd. said.

The Australian energy company said the partnership working off the coast of West Africa started drilling in the FAN prospect in the deep waters of Senegal. The company said the prospect holds an estimated 134 million barrels of recoverable oil by its best estimate.

"The FAN South-1 target represents an opportunity for FAR to add to the growing inventory of oil discoveries offshore Senegal and the wider Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau Basin, clearly one of the world's exploration hot spots," Managing Director Cath Norman said in a statement.

When discovered in 2014, the reservoirs offshore Senegal were counted among the largest in the world. By the estimates of the companies involved, more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil may be in basins off the coast of Senegal.

On top of a debt-free quarter, FAR was over-subscribed for a placement of 1 billion shares, generating around $60 billion in capital it will use to fund drilling, evaluation and pre-development programs off the coast of Senegal, and potentially the acquisition of further assets off the Gambian coast.

The placement put the company in a strong position to finance developments offshore and a final investment decision for the parts of offshore Senegal is expected by early 2019.

Lower crude oil prices have sparked concern about investments needed to meet future demand. The International Energy Agency said last year posted 2.4 billion barrels of new discoveries, against a 15-year average of 9 billion barrels.

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