CAIRN Energy has received more good news from West Africa after drilling underlined the potential of a big find it made in the waters off Senegal.

Cairn’s partner in Senegal, Far, said the latest well to appraise the SNE find had been extremely successful.

The Australian firm indicated the results are likely to prompt the partners to increase their estimates of the size of what is thought to be a bumper discovery.

Edinburgh-based Cairn reckons SNE could contain up to around 900 million barrels recoverable oil.

Cairn made no comment on the announcement by Far yesterday. It is expected to update investors when the well operations are completed.

However, the initial results of the latest drilling announced by Far are likely to boost hopes the firms have discovered a significant new oil and gas basin in what is a relatively under-explored area.

The announcement came just three weeks after Cairn published positive results from the previous appraisal well on SNE.

Far said the latest well had struck oil five kilometres from the original SNE find. It also found reservoirs lying deeper than the other five drilled on the field. All six wells have encountered oil.

Far’s managing director Cath Norman said the results will be used to help develop plans to bring SNE into production. The partners will continue drilling in the hope of making a fresh discovery deeper beneath the seabed

The update from Far also highlighted the fact the partners have been able to capitalise on the fall in the price of services triggered by the crude price plunge to drill the latest well at relatively low cost.

Cairn bought into Far’s Senegal acreage in 2013 under chief executive Simon Thomson’s plan to build a portfolio that balanced potentially transformational drilling in frontier areas with lower risk activity in the North Sea.