Total said that the discovery follows an adjacent discovery in 2019, which proved a significant new petroleum province.

The latest discovery was made in a block that covers an area of 19,000 sq km, with water depths ranging from 200-1,800 metres.

The block is operated by Total with a 45% working interest, alongside Qatar Petroleum (25%), CNR international (20%) and South African consortium Main Street (10%), Total added.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Matthieu Protard; Editing by David Goodman)