“We have the scope, the potential, the partners and the determination to grow,” de Vietri told the Excellence in Upstream Energy conference this week.

“Baraka is striving to build a balanced portfolio of high quality oil and gas assets spanning greenfield exploration through high-value production assets.”

Few petroleum companies know West Africa better than Baraka.

De Vietri has spent some 15 years in the region, building strong local relationships and gaining an understanding of the geology and hydrocarbon potential.

He introduced hydrocarbon exploration opportunities in offshore Mauritania to Hardman Resources, which has since been taken over by Tullow Oil.

De Vietri’s early entry into the region has meant that Baraka now has one of the largest acreage holdings in onshore Africa.

At this point, Baraka has now secured rights to explore eight blocks, covering a total of 272,300 square kilometres. This comprises seven blocks in the Taoudeni Basin – two in the Mauritanian section and five in Mali.

Even though its first exploration well, Heron-1, drilled in conjunction with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), was a commercial failure, that has not deterred Baraka from further African ventures.

The company’s initial strategy was to grab as much prospective acreage in onshore Mauritania and Mali as it could, then bring in majors as farm-in partners.

Baraka’s partners in these two countries include Australia’s Woodside Petroleum and CNPC in Mauritania, and Italy’s Eni and Algeria’s Sonatrach in Mali.

“Our assessment of the prospectivity of the Coastal Basin and the Taoudeni Basin has not gone unnoticed,” de Vietri told the conference.

“We have attracted majors and super-majors as our partners, which are among the largest and most active international oil and gas players in the world.”

De Vietri said Baraka is currently completing a 350,000 line kilometre airborne survey in Mali and was about to embark on a similar survey of almost 100,000 line kilometre in Mauritania.

“Evaluation of the airborne data will generate areas for first-pass investigation in our coming seismic programs with Eni and Sonatrach, planned to begin in October 2007,” he said.

With these foundations in place, Baraka has now shifted direction.

In late March, the company announced it had assembled an interesting mix of Australian companies to explore overseas ventures, starting with Africa.

The alliance includes Baraka, mid-caps Beach Petroleum and Arc Energy, Adelphi Energy, and perhaps most intriguingly, unlisted well and drilling technology outfit Advanced Well Technologies.

Baraka first floated the idea last September, but it took a further seven months before it announced that the alliance had finally been assembled.