Sierra Leone is awaiting the results of its first offshore 3D seismic survey in over a decade before deciding whether to launch a new oil and gas licensing round later this year, according to the country’s Petroleum Directorate.
The six-week seismic campaign, which began last month, is being conducted by GeoPartners in collaboration with the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone.
The goal is to de-risk offshore exploration by generating high-resolution data across the country’s offshore basin.
Foday Mansaray, Director General of the Petroleum Directorate, stated that TGS and other technical partners are currently reprocessing the data.
The updated results are expected to be presented to potential investors by October 2025.
Mansaray revealed that the government may offer up to 60 offshore blocks as part of its sixth licensing round, following the conclusion of the fifth round in 2023.
While earlier exploration efforts by Anadarko and Lukoil led to oil discoveries, they were not commercially viable.
The upcoming licensing round will likely exclude ultra-deepwater blocks, which the government intends to keep open for direct negotiations.
Mansaray estimated that Sierra Leone’s offshore basin holds as much as 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including the sizable Vega prospect, first identified by Anadarko, which alone is believed to contain about 3 billion barrels.
Strategically located on the Atlantic coast between oil-producing neighbors Ivory Coast and Senegal, Sierra Leone aims to position itself as an emerging frontier for offshore exploration.
According to Mansaray, several major energy companies—including Shell, Petrobras, Hess, and Murphy Oil—have purchased licensed data from Sierra Leone over the past 18 months, signaling growing interest in the basin.
Drawing comparisons to countries like Namibia and Guyana, which achieved major exploration breakthroughs after prolonged dormancy, Mansaray expressed strong optimism about Sierra Leone’s future.
“I firmly believe that Sierra Leone is on the cusp of something big, and we are going to be one of the next big and successful stories,” he said.
