Addressing Members of Parliament in May, President Bio said that with his Government continuing working to optimize Sierra Leone' oil and gas potential, Timothy Musa Kabba, the young, dynamic highly professiobal head of Sierra Leone’s Petroleum Directorate, is set on bolstering the country’s hydrocarbon’s sector.

President Bio stated that even though the oil and gas industry is experiencing its worst recession in recent history, the Petroleum Directorate ran a robust licensing round for Sierra Leone's open offshore acreage.

The process, which he said attracted 6 international oil and gas companies, was commended by the international oil and gas industry as open, transparent, and credible.

Two companies (Cluff Energy and Innoson Oil and Gas) were selected and awarded provisional Petroleum licenses, after meeting the technical, financial, and commercial requirements set out for the issuance of exploration license for operating in Sierra Leone’s deep water basin.

Thanks to the full support of President Bio, improved corporate budgets, an increased appetite for frontier exploration and his experience in the private sector, Kabba believes he can reassure investors and attracted responsible candidates.

The rebirth of the oil and gas companies’ interest in exploration has given rise to astronomical number of countries availing forms of tender options in an effort to capture a portion of the limited investment dollars now available,” he said.

Timothy Kabba is aware that the Directorate will not function effectively without collaborating with the necessary stakeholders and getting support from the general public.
Committed to transparency, Kabba is moving forward with the country’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and urges only ‘serious companies’ to come forward.

Under his leadership, Sierra Leone is committed to creating a regulatory environment that will catapult the country from potential to proven, whereby actualized oil deposits would be used for the social and economic benefit of the country.

Under his administration, Sierra Leone is unwavering in its pursuit to meet the highest standards as the country works to move towards aggressive exploration.

Sierra Leone announced its first oil discoveries back in 2009 and its latest sizeable discovery was in 2013 by Russian owned Lukoil after the Petroleum Directorate was established by the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act of 2011 to facilitate the optimal exploration and development of the country’s potential petroleum resources.