On a scouting exercise to Liberia some years ago, Canadian oil and mining consultant Hassan Hassan secured an onshore land package that was later described by geologists as one giant oil seep. Earlier this year, that exploration licence became the sole focus of Simba Energy Inc (TSX-V: SMB, Frankfurt: GDA), which had previously been known as Gold Star Resources. With a new management team in place and progress being made towards a formal production sharing agreement with the country’s government, the sense of anticipation surrounding Simba Energy is building fast.

On a visit to London last week, Hassan spoke to Stockopedia about the background to his initial licence deal, the progress being made by Simba Energy and his expectations for the company over the course of the next 12 months.

Hassan, before we talk about Simba Energy’s work in Liberia, can you talk me though your involvement with the company and the background to why it was set up?

Well I’ve been involved in junior mining and oil and gas companies my whole life, not normally at an executive level, usually as a behind the scenes person in helping them acquire properties or raise financing. I spent a lot of time out in the bush in my life as a prospector and I actually went to Liberia several years ago to look at some gold and diamond prospects that had come to my attention. While I was there I enquired about oil and gas, because I had just been involved in another oil and gas company. I found that there was what I thought to be an onshore basin and it wasn’t getting any attention because everyone was focused on offshore oil, including the government. So I quietly made enquiries about it and had some discussions with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and told them I would like to acquire the onshore and after some time it worked out that they said ‘nobody else has any interest in it, you’re welcome to have it’.

They are a very well educated group in Liberia, with some of the best schools in the West, and because of the success in Ghana offshore everyone is focused on offshore projects in the Gulf of Guinea. What I was looking at was a small part of the onshore basin that just creeps onshore a few miles, it’s not a…

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