In two to three days, the vessel 'Atwood Achiever' will enter the waters of occupied Western Sahara. A few weeks later, the drilling will commence. 

The platform will most probably arrive Western Sahara waters on Friday, 15 November 2014, depending on the length of the stop-over offshore Senegal. 

It was last seen departing from Namibia two weeks ago (see video below).

The vessel has sailed directly from there in the direction Western Sahara and is now offshore the Senegalese city of Saint Louis, where it is apparently bunkering supplies. It is accompanied by two anchor handling/supply vessels, Eland (IMO 9653757) and Springbok (IMO 9683996) who have sailed in from Mauritanian waters. The two latter vessels are owned by US company Edison Chouest Offshore LLC. 

Any new oil exploration in Western Sahara is in violation of international law, according to the UN. The people of the territory protest the engagement, which the operator, Kosmos Energy, is undertaking in partnership with the occupying power of Morocco. Read more about the controversial and illegal oil programme here in our report A Platform for Conflict. 

Both supply vessels, Eland and Springbok, sailed southwards from Mauritanian waters today down to Saint Louis to assist the vessel.