Bounty Oil & Gas, an independent Australian company active in oil and gas exploration and production, has taken a significant step towards expanding its activities in deepwater exploration in West Africa by signing a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water. This agreement grants Bounty exclusive rights to negotiate a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for block LB-32, described as an exploratory asset covering 2,322 square kilometers in water depths ranging from 1,500 to 4,200 meters.
Financing and Exploration Potential
Bounty has secured financing of $3,547,500 through a strong investment backed by institutional and strategic investment partners including Tribeca Investment Partners, L1 Capital Global Opportunities Master Fund, and S3 Consortium. Geologically, block LB-32 is similar to the prolific oil provinces of Guyana and Suriname, as well as major discoveries in Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Namibia.
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Initial analyses indicate that block LB-32 contains significant portions of the fan systems of the main basin, particularly the Jupiter (Turonian) and Zeus (Cenomanian) fans. The block is covered by approximately 656 square kilometers of 3D seismic data and 753 kilometers of 2D seismic line data, enabling immediate assessments and resource evaluations.
Next Steps and Impacts on the Oil and Gas Industry
With the backing of a binding legal letter from the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), PSC negotiations and parliamentary approval are expected to conclude by January 2027 or soon thereafter. The primary objective of this project is to exploit the fan systems of the upper Cretaceous basin. Rich sedimentary systems that have deposited the separate fan bodies (Jupiter and Zeus) are sealed by effective deep marine shales above mature source rocks (Aptian and Cenomanian–Turonian shales).
Previous discoveries off the coast of Liberia, such as Narina-1 which recovered oil with an API of 38 degrees, have confirmed the presence of active oil systems, although the outer basin fans targeted by Bounty have yet to be drilled. Secondary plays include upper Cretaceous fans/slopes, lower Triassic basin fans similar to the Hammerhead discoveries in Guyana, and deeper Aptian–Albian plays associated with fractures.
Bounty's board statement reads: "The decision to acquire PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water LLC represents a significant opportunity for Bounty to invest in a deepwater exploratory block in the Harper basin off the coast of Liberia while maintaining a structured approach that ties substantial vendor growth to independent technical credibility and related lease delivery."
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