Gambia-l, This article seems to indicate that there will soon be an oil exploration in Gambia. Some years ago someone wrote here about the possibility of oil and there was an article in either West Africa or New African magazine at that time. I will try to see if I can find that message in the archives a post it. I say good luck hope that they find oil or gas that can be exploited. Read on. Fusion double act on an oil crusade Upstream 20 June 2002 By Barry Morgan Upstream head to head Five years ago, two ambitious young geologists set up Fusion Oil & Gas in Perth, Western Australia, to chase prospective African upstream opportunities. Following a steady process of asset consolidation across the co ntinent, Alan Stein and Jonathan Taylor shot to fame last month after snaring a preferential rights deal for prized acreage off the disputed former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Morocco lays claim to and currently occupies Western Shara, but Fusion has signed up with the Sahrawi independence movement, the Polisario Front, just three years after gaining an introduction from the UK. The deal sets Fusion directly at odds with big industry players TotalFinaElf and Kerr-McGee, which have jointly contracted TGS-Nopec to shoot seismic on behalf of the Moroccan government. "It's a David and Goliath situation," says Stein, who describes Fusion as "a pure exploration dream...now capitalised at £40 million ($59 million)". Equity, including several operating interests, are spread throughout Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Gambia, Gabon and Cameroon. However, "Ghana didn 't work because we couldn't get funding in time and had to pack a three-year work programme into six months," says Stein. Taylor agrees: "This is a crusade for true believers -- I'd love to take acreage we've acquired in our own right and see results. Just one discovery in countries like Gambia or Western Sahara could have dramatic economic benefits and, yes, I'd love to think I'd been able to change the GDP of an entire country." Fusion will shortly tender for a seven-month 3D seismic job to kick-off in August spanning Gambia, Cameroon and the joint zone between Bissau and Senegal. The company still has a 6% stake in Woodside Petroleum's Mauritanian PSC-B, where three deep-water wells are slated from August following the Chinguetti find. "The presence of source rock off Western Sahara is proven by Chinguetti and we have sufficient evidence of it extending across the border, 2 says Taylor, the deal's principal architect. "Oil companies are so often associated with rape and pillage, so it's really refreshing to be involved in a deal which is morally correct." It all started in 1988 when Stein joined Peter Dolan's London geophysical company, which later merged with minor player Ikon to become Ikoda. Stein then split to form Fusion, with Dolan as chairman, and began trying to raise money on the Australian markets as technical consultants to fund the transformation. Stein describes this as "a pretty daunting task" but the friendship and financial support shown by key client Charlie Morgan, managing director of Perth explorer West Oil, "spurred us on and gave us confidence". By 1997 the team was in talks with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and also the Gambian government about opening up oil patches in the country. It was in the corridors o f Gambia's Trade Ministry that Stein ran into his old friend Taylor. "I'd just been chatting to him on the phone so you can imagine my surprise when I saw him pop up again on the African circuit." Taylor used to run Clyde Petroleum's new ventures division Down Under in the early 1990s. Back in Australia, Stein and Morgan "strung me a line about a company jet to fly me around west Africa and I fell for it", laughs Taylor. "Besides, I felt it was time to take a few risks." Stein regrets that "when the Asian financial flu finally hit Oz in late '97, all the money dried up", so Taylor was persuaded "into taking a retrenchment deal from Gulf Canada, relocating his heavily pregnant wife to Perth and then financing himself for 10 months without salary". The consulting side funded Fusion's technical commitments through 1998 "but it was a tough year and hard yakka all round -- one desk, one chair and no money for the light bill", stresses Stein. Trying to raise funds in London during the oil-price doldrums was a nightmare, he recalls. "We had an exploration company with no work and an oil company with no money, and we sure were getting into deep water." At one point, muses Stein: "John said he'd spend his last few bucks and take his family on holiday to Tasmania and then call it a day if no progress was made. As for me, I had just enough on the credit cards to get back to the UK." Then, at the 11th hour, in rode Westmount Energy, which agreed to invest half a million Australian dollars, keeping the dream afloat and providing the seed capital Fusion needed to pay mounting bills in Africa. "It was enough to secure our survival but I still had to personally borrow on the strength of it to prevent escalating costs," recalls Stein. The second tu rning point came in September 2000 when the company was finally listed on the London Stock Exchange. "It was a nail-biting time -- the first new oil and gas listing they'd had in two-and-a-half years. After nine months of gruelling work, we were both right down to the wire." To celebrate, "we had lunch at a little place opposite Lloyds and then went to sleep in utter relief". The pair were able to trumpet their triumph just a few days later over some bubbly organised at the annual Africa Upstream Conference in Cape Town, "and that's why we've sponsored a champagne breakfast at the Indaba ever since". 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