Bounty Oil & Gas Starts Technical Due Diligence on Undrilled Harper Basin Block
Key Takeaways
- Bounty Oil has started technical due diligence on Block LB-32 offshore Liberia following its 22 September 2026 binding agreement to acquire PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water LLC, with completion still subject to conditions precedent.
- The TGS licence gives Bounty about 656 km² of 3D seismic and 753 line-km of 2D over LB-32, none of which has yet been interpreted.
- Molyneux Advisors will run a five-step, play-based evaluation targeting the Upper Cretaceous basin floor fan play, ending in a ranked prospect inventory and a farm-out data room.
- TotalEnergies took a 65% interest in the three Harper Basin blocks immediately west of LB-32 in January 2026, and Narina-1 recovered 38° API oil in the adjacent Liberian Basin.
- No resource estimate or timeline is given, and any figure is expected only after an independent competent person's report under Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules.
LB-32 technical due diligence program commences offshore Liberia
Bounty Oil & Gas has commenced the technical due diligence program on Block LB-32, offshore Liberia, following the binding agreement announced on 22 September 2026 to acquire PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water LLC. The announcement is dated 13 October 2026.
Block LB-32 lies in the undrilled Harper Basin and is considered prospective for multiple play types, in particular the Upper Cretaceous basin floor fan play. The acquisition has not completed, and the announcement notes conditions precedent apply.
Due diligence under the share sale agreement comprises technical, legal and financial workstreams, run in parallel. The technical workstream is the largest component of the program and the basis for the company’s farm-out strategy.
Program aim
The program aims to generate an internal lead and prospect inventory for LB-32 ahead of a maiden Prospective Resource estimate. No resource estimate is reported in the announcement.
Data and advisers in place
The company has agreed commercial terms with TGS, a global provider of advanced energy data and intelligence, and executed an agreement to licence the LB-32 portion of the Sunfish 3D survey and legacy 2D seismic. Key facts:
- LB-32 is covered by approximately 656 km² of 3D seismic (the eastern portion of the approximately 6,167 km² TGS Sunfish 3D survey) and approximately 753 line-km of 2D seismic
- The TGS licence covers an area of entitlement of approximately 678 km², comprising the PSDM stack, near/mid/far angle stacks and velocities
- The company holds an option to upgrade to TGS’s 2026 Kirchhoff PSDM reprocessed Sunfish 3D product, which TGS has scheduled for release in the second half of 2026
- Molyneux Advisors, a Perth-based independent provider of upstream technical advice to the energy industry, has been appointed for the subsurface risk and prospectivity assessment
PSDM means pre-stack depth migration, a seismic imaging method that produces a clearer picture of rock layers at depth. The announcement states the reprocessed product is designed to improve imaging of Upper Cretaceous targets while preserving AVO fidelity.
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How the subsurface assessment will work
Molyneux Advisors will run what the announcement describes as a conventional play-based evaluation. Bounty has licensed but not interpreted the seismic data over LB-32, so this work is where any technical picture begins.
Five-step, play-based evaluation
- Regional framework: correlating key stratigraphic surfaces from Liberian Basin well control into the Sunfish 3D
- Fan and geobody mapping: delineating the Jupiter (Turonian) and Zeus (Cenomanian) fan systems and other bodies
- Play-based risking: mapping reservoir, seal, trap and charge risk for each play
- Direct hydrocarbon indicator screening: AVO analysis of the angle stacks over mapped fan bodies
- Volumetrics: probabilistic in-place and recoverable volume ranges, with a geological chance of success for each lead
What comes out the other end
The outputs are an internal lead and prospect inventory map for LB-32, ranked by risked recoverable volume, a recommended forward work program, and the technical content for a farm-out data room.
Internal estimates will not be reported. They will instead define the scope of the independent competent person’s report.
For you as an investor, that means any resource figure is expected to arrive only after independent evaluation, in accordance with Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules.
Why the Upper Cretaceous basin floor fan play matters
A basin floor fan is a sand-rich deposit laid down on the deep seabed, the kind of rock that can hold oil. The announcement says modern broadband 3D seismic and pre-stack depth imaging allow these bodies to be mapped directly as amplitude and impedance geobodies.
AVO (amplitude versus offset) analysis can then be used to screen for hydrocarbon charge before drilling. The announcement states this is the workflow the company will apply to the Sunfish 3D.
The announcement links the play to a shorter gap between discovery and first production in three third-party projects. Bounty has no interest in any of them.
| Discovery | Location | Discovery date | First oil | Time to first oil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jubilee | Ghana | June 2007 | November 2010 | About three and a half years |
| Liza | Guyana | May 2015 | December 2019 | Less than five years |
| Baleine | Côte d’Ivoire | September 2021 | August 2023 | Not stated in source |
The announcement describes Guyana’s Stabroek Block as having delivered more than 30 discoveries and approximately 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent of discovered recoverable resource, as reported by the operator. It states that geological analogy does not guarantee exploration success, and that the Harper Basin basin floor fan play is undrilled.
Major companies are also active along the margin:
- TotalEnergies signed four PSCs in the Liberian Basin in September 2025 and took a 65% interest in the three Harper Basin blocks immediately west of LB-32 in January 2026
- Petrobras signed eight deepwater PSCs offshore Côte d’Ivoire in June 2026
- Murphy Oil is drilling a three-well campaign across its Ivorian blocks
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Liberia and Block LB-32 investment backdrop
Liberia reformed its offshore petroleum sector in 2019. The change established the LPRA as an independent regulator and separated oversight from the commercial functions of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL). Licensing proceeds against a model PSC (production sharing contract).
In September 2025, TotalEnergies signed PSCs over Blocks LB-6, LB-11, LB-17 and LB-29, and Atlas Oranto Petroleum signed PSCs over a further four blocks. Both sets were ratified by the Liberian legislature in December 2025.
TGS and NOCAL are also completing a multi-year program to reprocess available 2D and 3D seismic offshore Liberia. The announcement says this materially lowers the cost and time required for a new entrant to reach a drill decision.
The Harper Basin is an undrilled embayment of approximately 20,000 km². An active oil-prone petroleum system is confirmed in the adjacent Liberian Basin, where live oil including 38° API oil at Narina-1 was recovered from Upper Cretaceous slope fan and channel sandstones.
LB-32 covers 2,322 km² in water depths of approximately 1,500 m to 4,200 m. It was the last unlicensed block in the Harper Basin when PetroQuest secured its rights.
What investors should watch next
The announcement points to several steps: completion of the technical, legal and financial workstreams, the interpretation outputs, the independent competent person’s report, and the intended farm-out. It gives no timelines for these.
The acquisition remains subject to conditions precedent, so the outcome of due diligence matters.
Molyneux Advisors has experience across six continents, including deepwater settings. It is led by Managing Director Simon Molyneux, a geoscientist with over 23 years of experience at Santos, Talisman Energy and Shell. Its team of principal consultants and associates has senior technical backgrounds at Shell, BP, Chevron and Woodside.
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