Wholly owned Baraka subsidiary Baraka Mauritania Ventures and Woodside Mauritania, a wholly owned subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum entered into a production sharing contract (PSC) for the blocks in 2004. In 2005, Woodside farmed-in for a 75% interest and operatorship in the Taoudeni Basin PSC areas.

As part of the approved 2007 work program, Woodside will conduct airborne magnetics, gravity surveys and geological studies.

Baraka said the survey, which will be 37,000km in length, will begin in May and finish in September.

Woodside recently completed a 3D thermal modelling study in Ta11/12 region to determine the area’s relative prospectivity for oil and gas generation.

Baraka said preliminary modelling results are “encouraging”, with a wide range of thermal maturities expected from south to north.

The 2007 exploration activities budget is forecast to be about $US4.9 million ($A5.8 million). Baraka has a 100% free carry through the work program.

In January 2006, Baraka announced that seismic data for the blocks had been successfully reprocessed, with leads originally identified in the mid-1970s confirmed.

One of the reprocessed seismic lines runs through the ABOLAG-1 well, which was drilled in 1974 and recorded an encouraging gas flow of 480,000 cubic feet per day from the Infracambrian combined source rock and reservoir interval.

Baraka said the reprocessed seismic data suggests that these Infracambrian rocks are present throughout permits Ta11 and Ta12.

The blocks cover about 60,000 square kilometres and are near the Mali/Mauritanian border.