President Adama Barrow revealed in his 2025 State of the Nation Address yesterday that after spending $100 million to test and drill two wells during his government, no commercially viable oil or gas was found.
Explorations will continue, he said, adding that the results from both wells were “promising and positive.”
Two of the five test-drilled wells in The Gambia were conducted during my tenure. The two that were drilled during my tenure—the Samo-1 Well in 2018 and the Bambo-1 Well in 2021—were part of a collaboration between FAR and Petronas. The wells that my government drilled cost $100 million USD. “No discovery was made, despite the fact that the results from both wells are very positive and promising,” Barrow said.
After completing their duties, which mostly involved drilling the wells, he continued, the two businesses left The Gambia with their licenses.
Additionally, according to President Barrow, the British corporation BP was awarded an A1 license in 2019 and paid the government a US$30 million penalty for leaving without satisfying their license obligations, as well as a US$10 million signature bonus.
“BP left The Gambia at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic because of their policy change from oil and gas exploration to renewable energy,” he clarified.
The president claims that the government is putting in place the legal and institutional framework required to draw in investors for offshore oil and gas exploration.
In order to guarantee sustained energy security for all Gambians, he further reiterated that his government will keep giving investments in power generation, renewable energy, petroleum exploration, and mineral resource management first priority.
