As of today, Wednesday, 30 July 2025, no response has been received from the Government of Senegal. Accordingly, Mr Ousman F. M’Bai, a former UK Financial Crime Prosecutor and Asset Recovery Specialist, has formally petitioned the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), alleging that The Gambia has been unjustly excluded from its rightful share of the transboundary Sangomar offshore oil reservoir.
The petition, submitted to the ECOWAS Commission President, names the Government of Senegal, its national oil company, Petrosen, and Australian multinational Woodside Energy, and adventurist FAR Ltd as key actors in what Mr M’Bai describes as “a deliberate strategy of exclusion.”
The submission alleges that since 2017, the ECOWAS-backed ECOMIG Intervention Force in The Gambia has been exploited not solely for stabilisation, but also as a mechanism of influence over a vulnerable nation. It alleges that Senegalese security and intelligence operatives embedded within The Gambia have gained undue influence over key state institutions, particularly in the natural resource sector, undermining Gambian sovereignty and weakening the country’s ability to assert its national interests. ECOWAS, by its continued support without adequate oversight, has inadvertently enabled this strategy of exclusion.
The submission accuses the Senegalese government, particularly under former President Macky Sall, of misusing this regional security arrangement to obstruct calls for unitisation, a legal process required under international law where a hydrocarbon reservoir straddles national boundaries.
Mr M’Bai’s letter cites violations of principles enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including the duty of states to cooperate in good faith and equitably manage shared maritime resources. It calls on ECOWAS to initiate an independent inquiry or facilitate a diplomatic dialogue between The Gambia and Senegal.
“The reservoir beneath Sangomar does not recognise political boundaries, yet the silence and manoeuvres of state actors have created an artificial and unjust one,” Mr M’Bai stated. “The time has come for ECOWAS to live up to its founding vision of regional solidarity and fairness.”
The petition also raises concern over the conduct of international oil companies involved in the region, notably FAR Ltd, Woodside Energy, and Petronas, whose actions and wilful silence have facilitated what Mr M’Bai calls “a resource exclusion strategy designed to favour private gain at the expense of a poor and weak nation.”
At the heart of the petition is the claim that Senegal and Woodside Energy have proceeded with unilateral development of the Sangomar oil field despite “strong technical predrill and post drill evidence,” acknowledged by FAR Ltd.’s chief geologist, demonstrating reservoir continuity into The Gambia’s A2 offshore block.
Instead of initiating mandatory unitisation talks, The Gambia’s A2 block boundary was quietly redrawn in 2023, just as FAR Ltd exited the country, and coinciding with Senegal’s ongoing review of its maritime code, resulting in the exclusion of key prospects, including the Bambo-1 well location, the Soloo, Soloo Deep, and Panthera areas, collectively estimated to hold over 1.12 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
“This illegal demarcation effectively strips The Gambia of its sovereign claim,” Mr M’Bai asserts. “It creates a tacit buffer that benefits Senegal and Woodside, while disenfranchising an entire nation from its resource future.”
Senegal has, in comparable contexts, recognised the value and necessity of regional cooperation through formal joint development and unitisation agreements, notably with Mauritania (in relation to the GTA project) and Guinea-Bissau. Yet, conspicuously, no such agreement exists with The Gambia, despite substantial evidence that the Sangomar reservoir straddles its maritime boundary. This selective approach strongly suggests that Senegal, in concert with Woodside Energy, may have exploited The Gambia’s weaker institutional capacity to avoid its legal obligation to engage in equitable resource-sharing discussions. Such conduct is not only inconsistent with regional norms, but may also constitute a breach of Senegal’s duty under international law to act in good faith towards its neighbours.
The action follows months of unanswered correspondence addressed to Senegal’s Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Petrosen, Woodside Energy, FAR Ltd, and Petronas. Mr M’Bai argues that Senegal’s continued silence now warrants regional scrutiny, and calls upon ECOWAS to act before deeper institutional mistrust sets in across West Africa.
