Sierra Leone has not yet established whether an offshore oil find last year is commercially viable and expects to know more in a year, its energy minister told Reuters today. A consortium led by Anadarko Petroleum Corp announced last September it had made a find off the coast of Sierra Leone that analysts said potentially opened up a multibillion-barrel oil frontier in West Africa. "We have not yet established that the oil they have found out is in commercial quantities....In about a year's time we should be in a far better position," Ogunlade Davidson said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Ivory Coast. Houston-based Anadarko said in September that the Venus B well confirmed the existence of an active petroleum system offshore Sierra Leone, raising hopes for more than 30 other Anadarko prospects in that part of West Africa. Anadarko holds 40 percent of Venus, while Spain's Repsol YPF and Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd each hold 25 percent and British-based Tullow holds the rest. Shares in Anadarko and Tullow jumped as much as 10 percent on the discovery last year. The consortium believes the field could be one of a string of reservoirs that stretches 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from Ghana to Sierra Leone, across Ivory Coast and Liberia. Ghana is due to join Africa's oil-producing club later this year. -- SPA
