Bounty Agrees to Buy Liberia Deepwater Exploration Pathway

Bounty Oil & Gas has agreed to buy PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water, giving it a route to pursue an interest in offshore Block LB-32. The 2,322-square-kilometre block lies in Liberia’s Harper Basin, in water depths of about 1,500 to 4,200 metres.

The agreement does not give Bounty a licence to drill. PetroQuest holds a letter of engagement from Liberia’s National Oil Company, NOCAL, giving it the exclusive right to negotiate a production-sharing contract with the petroleum regulator. The contract still needs parliamentary approval.

Bounty is also seeking to raise A$3.55 million through a share placement. Under the acquisition terms, it will pay the PetroQuest owners A$1.5 million in cash and issue about 863 million Bounty shares, with further payments and shares tied to technical and commercial milestones.

The deal must clear due diligence, shareholder and regulatory approvals, and a minimum A$3 million capital raise. Bounty and the sellers must meet or waive the conditions by December 31, 2026. The company may seek to buy back deal shares if the contract is not executed within 18 months of completion.

Bounty has identified the Jupiter and Zeus deepwater fan prospects as targets. But it has not directly reviewed the block’s 3D seismic data, and says it will not publish a resource estimate until an independent evaluator has assessed the data.

The block has about 656 square kilometres of 3D seismic coverage from TGS’s Sunfish survey. Bounty plans to license the relevant data, assess prospects and consider bringing in a partner to help fund future work.

The acreage sits beside Harper Basin blocks where TotalEnergies has been advancing exploration plans with BluEnergies. That activity offers regional context, but it does not prove that LB-32 contains commercial oil; Bounty says the basin-floor fan play there remains untested by drilling.

The next key steps are completion of Bounty’s acquisition conditions, negotiation of the Liberian contract and review of the seismic. PetroQuest expects contract negotiations and parliamentary approval by January 2027 or shortly after.