AFEX signed a Production Sharing Agreement for Block 13 with the Government of the Republic of Mali in April 2007.The block covered an area of 64,000 sq km, an enormous area about the size of the Central Graben of the North Sea.

Geological field work in Block 13, Mali

Vibrator trucks on the 2010 AFEX seismic survey, Block 13

Mali is grossly underexplored for hydrocarbons.  Around one half of the country overlies sedimentary basins but only 5 deep exploration wells have been drilled, representing only 1 well per 450,000 sq km of sedimentary basin.  When AFEX entered Block 13 there had been no seismic or drilling in the area but previous land-based gravity surveys indicated the existence of the Nara Graben, a possible Cretaceous rift basin which had been the focus of AFEX’s exploration efforts to date.

AFEX, as operator, completed an aero-gravity and magnetic survey in 2008 followed by geological studies, field work and a reconnaissance 2D seismic program in 2010.  These data have confirmed that Block 13 overlies part of the Nara Graben, a series of previously unexplored Cretaceous rifts superimposed on a thick Late Proterozoic sedimentary section on the southern margin of the Taoudeni Basin.

AFEX withdrew from Block 13 in November 2014 to focus on the Company’s prime asset, the Matanda Block in the Republic of Cameroon.