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Dakar - Geologists and investors are stepping up the search for hondreds of billions of dollars of oil beneath West Africa's shore, seeking to emulate Brazil's major discoveries across the Atlantic.
Geologists have long held that Africa's western seabed mirrors South America's. The continents were fused into a single plate nearly 200 million years ago.
High oil prices consistently above $100 a barrel and cheaper technology make it possible for producers to explore thousands of feet below the surface.
The enthusiasm follows pre-salt finds by Total and Cobalt in Gabon and Angola, shifting the focus to a region that has played second fiddle to east Africa's gas boom.
William Hayes, senior VP at explorer Kosmos Energy, said the firm expected a "suite of smaller, but still globally significant discoveries" in the region.
Seismic data
Jasper Peijs, BP's exploration director for sub-Saharan Africa, said he expected super giant discoveries off Angola.
"All the prospects there have the potential to be giant, which I would say is at least 250 million barrels and greater, or super giant of 500 million to a billion barrels and even greater than that," he said on the sidelines of an African oil and gas conference in Cape Town.
So far, most of the excitement has centred on Angola where prospecting is more advanced after a licensing round in 2011.
Total's General Director in Angola, Jean-Michel Lavergne, said: "The first year was one of acquiring seismic data, followed by the evaluation of results and 2014 will be a year of drilling for most operators."
The company will drill two of 10-15 pre-salt wells set to be explored in 2014.Angola's Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said earlier that it could take operators eight to 10 years after discovery to start production.New wells
Some expect the pre-salt zone to extend further north to the Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea or south to Namibia, stretching along a coastline of more than 2 000km.
In addition to Angola, at least half a dozen pre-salt wells are either underway or have been announced in neighbouring Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Brazil has made several pre-salt finds since 2007 in the Santos Basin off its southeastern coast. It also has a host of new wells, such as the massive Libra field.
The International Energy Agency expects Brazil to become the sixth largest oil producer by 2035 and to meet a third of the net growth in global supply.
It said however that the pace of supply growth will hinge on the ability of its state oil company Petrobras, to stick to its investment plans, which project $237bn over five years, making it the world's largest corporate spending programme.
