* BP awarded licence to offshore A1 block
* African Petroleum disputes its licences expired
* Oil and gas found off Senegalese, Mauritanian coast(Adds BP comment, African Petroleum response, background)
By Pap Saine
BANJUL, May 1 (Reuters) - BP has signed a deal toexplore for oil and gas off Gambia's coast in a potentialeconomic boon for the tiny West African country, althoughanother producer says it owns the rights to the same licence.
BP was awarded the licence to the A1 block, the Gambiangovernment said late on Tuesday, a deal which comes as producersseek to emulate oil and gas finds in neighbouring Senegal andMauritania that have attracted oil majors from across the globe.
The A1 block is one of two that the Gambian governmentstripped from Norwegian-listed African Petroleum Corporationin 2017, saying the licences had expired and that thecompany had failed to meet contractual obligations.
African Petroleum disputed that and launched arbitrationproceedings in October 2017 at the U.S.-based InternationalCentre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. No resolution hasbeen announced in the case.
African Petroleum said on Wednesday it "continues to reserveits rights in relation to the A1 licence and will continue withits efforts to protect its interest" through arbitration.
A spokeswoman for BP declined to comment on the arbitrationproceedings and said it had won the license in a bidding round.
A statement from the office of Gambian President AdamaBarrow quoted Jonathan Evans, BP's vice president for Africa NewVentures, as saying the project would begin with anenvironmental impact assessment, followed by two years ofdrilling, exploration and development of a first well.
"This is about looking for oil and gas in the deep water ...and if it is successful to develop that oil in the future,"Evans said.
BP's move into the country of 2 million people follows a $1billion entry into gas fields in offshore Senegal and Mauritaniain 2016 that includes plans to build a liquefied natural gas(LNG) plant to export West African gas worldwide.
African Petroleum estimated the A1 and A4 blocks that itheld contained up to 3 billion barrels of oil. It is not clearwhat the estimate is for the A1 block alone.
Gambia's government is promoting oil and gas development torevive an economy gutted by more than two decades of autocraticrule under former President Yahya Jammeh, who financed a lavishlifestyle by plundering the central bank and other publicaccounts. He fled the country in 2017.
The likelihood of success is hard to gauge: a well drilledby Australia's FAR Ltd last year came up dry.
BP's Evans was cautious about prospects and the time itwould take for Gambia to benefit, according to his commentsquoted in the presidential office statement.
"It is very important ... to understand that the moneywouldn't start flowing tomorrow. It is probably in 10 years'time before the revenues would start flowing in," he said.
(Reporting by Pap SaineWriting by Aaron RossEditing by Edward McAllister)
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