Tuskar Resources has been transformed after shifting its interests to west Africa and acquiring a 40 per cent interest in operations in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, the company's chairman, Mr Howard Wolf, told shareholders yesterday.

Independent consultants had assessed the potential resources on the offshore concession, Oil Mining Lease (OML) 110 block, between Angola and Senegal, to be in excess of 500 million barrels of oil, he said.

This was in addition, he continued, to the approved and probable reserves of about 15 million barrels on the Obe oilfield, which is in the 240,000-acre OML concession.

Tuskar's agreement entitles it to 75 per cent of profits on the first 50 million barrels of oil produced. "Such large high-risk, high-reward prospects are part of the life-blood of junior E and P (Exploration & Production) companies such as ours," Mr Wolf said. At the meeting, Mr Wolf introduced Mr Kase Lawal, the Nigerian-born owner of the Texas-based company, Camac/Allied Energy, which has 59 per cent of the issued share capital of Tuskar as a result of the exploration company's deal to buy into OML 110.

Mr Wolf said Tuskar is in discussions with potential partners to commercially develop the Obe-4 well and to drill a second development well, Obe-5, but there were difficulties in contracting oil rigs.

Asked why the share price had performed so badly after the successful drilling of the Obe-4 well, Mr Wolf said he believed the market was awaiting further developments. Tuskar was "a fallen angel" in the 1980s, he added, and "we thought it was a company we could breathe some long-term life into", adding that it had been worth keeping Tuskar's 1 per cent interest in the North Sea's Buchan oilfield, whose field life has been extended to 2002.