Well they have the seismics program coming up Liberia, which is key to developing prospects and confirming the basin area and finally identifying traps. The basin area has only been stipulated using gravity surveys (very old by the way). I feel there is still alot of risk involved. currently i'm trying to do an OIP estimate for myself...

I've heard things like an estimated 1 billion barrels in place. But I have yet to see how the estimation was made. Currently i'm using source rock data from suriname/ivory coast/guinea. if the petroleum system does not exist onshore (2km thick) we are dependent on migrating oil from the offshore area...

As for Mali, I'm not too sure why Simba decided to go into that area which has been developed by another IOC thoroughly (60 million spent orso?). But its fair to say I haven't studied Mali well enough yet. Its well positioned above source rocks/oilgas window, then again you have to hope the oil/gas migrated straight upwards...

alot of questions remain...