Eyes Set on Commercial Discovery -NOCAL CEO Tells AOW Confab; Says Liberia’s Doors for Investment Opened
For quite a while now, Liberia has struggled almost fruitlessly to hit the long-awaited jackpot—oil find, and in commercial quality—so that it adds to other vital resources capable of catalyzing and quickening the country’s rise from squalor. In a couple of decades ago, many came, explored and left, faces frowned. But not all Liberians are hopeless. Some are still very hopeful. One of such hopeful Liberians, and from her vintage point, is the current National Oil Company Chief Executive Officer who told her colleagues during the ongoing 30th edition of the AOW being held in Cape Town, South Africa, that “our yes are set on commercial discovery [of crude oil] through explorational opportunities”. THE ANALYST reports.
Despite a couple of unsuccessful exploratory attempts made by national and international oil czars for the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in Liberia, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Rustonlyn Suacoco Dennis, says Liberia’s doors for investment in the sector are open.
In a statement delivered at the 30th edition of AOW taking place 7-10 October 2024 at the CTICC2, Cape Town, South Africa, Madam Dennis said “with our eyes set on commercial discovery through exploration opportunities…as a country, we encourage interested companies to participate in all the processes leading to acquiring blocks in our offshore basins”.
“At the National Oil Company of Liberia,” she courted potential investors in attendance at the conference, “it is our business to ensure that all parties coming to do business in Liberia’s upstream sector get the best tools to work with to enhance their exploration success. In this case, we are working with our data partners (TGS and Core Lab) to ensure you get the best you can ask for to make your work easy and enhance our chances of finding”.
The NOCAL president divulged that TGS recently completed the first phase of reprocessing approximately 12,097 kilometers of 2D legacy seismic data offshore Liberia.
“This significantly enhances subsurface clarity,” she added. “This data is now available for industry licensing.”
According to Ms. Dennis, the second phase has commenced, aiming to reprocess an additional 12,675-line kilometers over the Liberia and Harper Basins, bringing the total to over 24,700 kilometers.
This high-quality 2D seismic data is essential to allow E & P companies to evaluate exploration opportunities in a very under explored but proven petroleum system, he noted.
Continuing the updating of colleagues at the meeting, she said: “Apart from the ongoing direct negotiation process (that is conducted by the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority), in which we encourage all of you to participate, we would like to point you to a second option where you can partner with the state-owned company (NOCAL) and explore the basins.
In this option, called “Executive Allocation to NOCAL,” NOCAL can divest some of its 100% interest to an interested party to work the block together, she asserted. “This, of course, comes with several incentives for the investing partner. We are, therefore, open to partnership.”
Madam Dennis said NOCAL is also considering setting up a shorebase in the Port City of Buchanan to exploration activities offshore Liberia and open a new line of investment opportunities for Liberia.
“The other portion of our presentation today will discuss the Direct Negotiation Process, the geology of our basins, and the subsurface opportunities,” she disclosed, adding, “I invite you to our National Showcase today at 1:00 pm at the Government Stage. I appreciate your interest in Liberia; we look forward to doing business with you.”
She maintained that Liberia has the best oil in Africa—oil that is “trapped somewhere in our basin, and we want to extract it. Therefore, we are open to investors. Our data is available, and the geology is similar to other areas where discoveries have been made.
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