Baraka was formed to acquire, consolidate and develop the West African oil and gas assets held by the private companies previously associated with Baraka’s founding managing director, Max de Vietri.

De Vietri was the man behind the initial annexing of the offshore Mauritanian acreage now operated by Woodside and Dana Petroleum.

The company has acquired control over eight tenements, covering over 272 000 km² of onshore Mauritania and Mali. Baraka said this made it one of the biggest exploration land holders in the region.

Executive chairman Shane Doherty, a former founding director of Sydney Gas Company, said Baraka had been overwhelmed by the interest in the IPO.

“A company must have three key ingredients to become successful - a good asset, good people and good financial resources,” he said.

“We have an attractive asset, we have just secured the financial resources through the IPO and we have assembled a strong technical and corporate team needed to leverage our assets and finances.

Baraka would continue to build its assets in the West Africa region as well as the expertise in its team, according to Doherty.

“We believe that given the increased interest in the exploration potential of the region, together with the JV and farmin relationships that we have secured and are looking to secure in the near future, Baraka is well placed to provide value to shareholders over the medium to long-term,” he said.

Colin Roberts, a petroleum geologist, and Peter Cockcroft, engineer and lawyer, are the non-executive directors while former Schlumberger seismic sequence stratigrapher, Dr Satyavan Reymond, is heading up operations.