Selier Energy Ltd. has been granted the 4.8 million acre Block 18 oil and gas exploration permit in the Macina graben, eastern Mali (the "Macina Project"). The Company has commenced its airborne geophysics program on the Macina oil project in Mali.
The northeast-trending Macina graben is approximately 250 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide (25,000 square kilometers, or 6.25 million acres) in the southern part of the vast Taoudeni basin of Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania, which covers an area of over 1.8 million square kilometers (450 million acres). Under the terms of the Convention between Selier and the Republic of Mali, Selier must spend a total of US$11.2 million dollars in exploration of the permit within 4 years according to the following schedule: $800,000 in year 1, $1.7 MM in year 2, $1.7 MM in year 3, and $7 MM in year 4.
Intracratonic basins with onshore oil and gas reserves in north Africa are widespread in Libya, Chad, Niger, and Sudan. The basins occupy depressions formed at the end of the late Proterozoic (ca. 800 to 600 Ma) Pan African orogeny. Source rocks consisting of lacustrine to marine sequences were deposited in two cycles, an older Silurian cycle and a younger Cretaceous cycle. The Macina graben occupies the pre-existing, southwest-trending Gourma aulacogen of the 800 Ma Pan African Pharusian fold belt. In the Gao region, in the eastern part of the Gourma aulacogen, approximately 700 kilometers east of the Macina project, Cretaceous source rocks were encountered in the Ansongo-1 well (1,645 m) drilled in 1979. Previous work in the Macina graben consists of a regional gravity survey in 1957, followed by airborne magnetic surveys in 1963 and 1979. That work led to the definition of the Macina graben, and the cogenetic Gao and Nara grabens. The sedimentary sequence in the Macina graben is interpreted to be 12 to 14 km thick. No seismic surveys or drilling have been completed in the Macina graben.
Several countries in the region, including Niger, Chad, Libya and Sudan, have onshore oil reserves within intracratonic basins similar to those in Mali as described in the following table:
| Country | Size (MM bbl) |
| Sudan | 6,400 |
| Chad | 900 |
| Niger | 350 |
| Libya, Murzuk basin | 500 |
In the 1.8 million square kilometer Taoudeni basin of Mali, 4 exploration wells were drilled in the period 1967 to 1985 and 10,043 line kilometers of seismic surveying were completed in the period 1973 to 1981 representing 1 exploration well per 450,000 square kilometers (112,500,000 acres) of basin area and 1 line kilometer of seismic surveying per 180 square kilometers (45,000 acres) of basin area.
In nearby Niger and Chad, which have had more previous exploration than Mali, and have established oil and gas reserves, there is at least 1 drill hole per 6,000 square kilometers (1.5 million acres) of basin area and at least 1 line kilometer of seismic surveying per 6 square kilometers (1,500 acres) of basin area and the drilling success rate is approximately 30%. In Niger and Chad, the depth to Cretaceous reservoirs varies from 900 to 3,500 meters and reservoir sizes vary from 3,000 to 18,000 acres.
When one considers the potential of the vast Taoudeni basin of Mali, which has similar geology to the intracratonic basins of Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Libya, but only 1 exploration well per 450,000 square kilometers of basin area and 1 line kilometer of seismic surveying per 180 square kilometers of basin area, Mali must be regarded as one of the last frontiers for onshore oil and gas exploration worldwide. Moreover, Mali has a progressive, democratic government that encourages foreign investment and has a reputation for being fair and open.