The companies include Baraka, leading midcaps Beach Petroleum and Arc Energy, and juniors Adelphi Energy, in which Arc is the major shareholder, and Advanced Well Technologies. They have signed a memorandum of understanding to pool resources in seeking and acquiring high value projects.

Baraka general manager Mark Fenton, who came up with the alliance idea, said the consortium would let the companies buy into projects larger than they could otherwise acquire.

Fenton said last year that the alliance would expose its members to higher value petroleum projects in the $US20-100 million [$A26-131 million] range.

“This alliance has been formed so as to allow the group to punch well above the sum of the individual companies’ collective weight,” he said.

“For smaller companies, such as ours, this represents a unique opportunity to significantly increase the size of deals we can participate in, a reduction in our overall risk levels and a pooling of complementary resources to ensure the most efficient use of each company’s financial and human resources.”

Fenton said successful exploration strategy in Africa required dedicated human resources, a well-established network of local contacts and patience due to the cost and relatively long gestation periods for new oil and gas projects.

Baraka is very much a specialist in West African exploration. Founder and managing director Max 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 positions in onshore Africa.

The companies have agreed to “flexible” participation whereby participating parties share costs throughout the various stages of evaluation and negotiation and can elect to discontinue at agreed points.

The MoU requires no company to participate in a project in which it does not wish to be involved.

The group said it was likely to consider a number of projects including production, rejuvenation, development, near-field exploration and frontier exploration.

The partners plan to immediately start evaluating projects both in Africa and elsewhere.