The National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), in partnership with Houston-based geoscience expert Karen Carlson, successfully hosted a two-day high-level technical workshop aimed at advancing Liberia’s petroleum exploration efforts. The workshop, held from January 14 to 15, 2026, represented another important step toward revitalizing the country’s upstream oil and gas sector.
The engagement brought together key government agencies and energy-sector stakeholders to evaluate Liberia’s offshore potential, review existing geological data, and explore new opportunities for sustainable hydrocarbon development, particularly in the country’s shallow-water acreages.
Welcoming participants, NOCAL Board Chairperson, Cllr. Gloria Maya Musu-Scott, and NOCAL’s President and CEO, Fabian Michael Lai, emphasized the importance of collaboration, innovation, and data-driven decision-making in repositioning Liberia as an attractive destination for petroleum investment. They encouraged participants to actively help strengthen the country’s technical narrative and its competitiveness in the global energy market.
The workshop was led by Ms. Karen Carlson, a highly respected American geoscientist with over fifty years of experience in petroleum geology and subsurface exploration. She has held senior technical roles with leading international energy companies, including Marathon Oil and Chevron, where she has extensively contributed to exploration planning, geological assessment, and prospect development across various basins worldwide.
Currently, Ms. Carlson works as a Geoscience Advisor at KC Geoscience Consulting LLC in Houston, Texas. Her expertise includes petroleum systems analysis, seismic interpretation, structural geology, and exploration strategy, with particular strength in frontier and underexplored basins.
Discussions during the workshop focused on enhancing Liberia’s shallow-water exploration prospects by establishing a clear technical and commercial plan. Key topics included understanding Liberia’s rift systems, evaluating data availability, identifying onshore and offshore exploration opportunities, and using modern interpretation techniques on legacy datasets to find new prospects.
Day One featured detailed technical presentations and interactive discussions with geoscientists, petroleum engineers, and sector specialists from several government agencies, including LPRA, MME, LPRC, NaFAA, LiMA, UL, and others. The diverse participation ensured a comprehensive, multi-agency approach to understanding Liberia’s nearshore petroleum potential.
Day Two concentrated on strategic alignment and future planning. These sessions included a review of technical findings and forward-looking discussions with NOCAL’s Board, Executive Management, and Geoscience Team. Emphasis was placed on improving institutional readiness and plans to promote Liberia’s shallow-water prospects to potential investors.
As part of her engagement, Ms. Carlson visited the Liberia Geological Survey in Old Road and the area of reported hydrocarbon seeps in Beon, Grand Bassa County. She noted that Liberia has significant untapped hydrocarbon potential that can be unlocked through improved data access, revisiting historical well data, and utilizing modern exploration technologies.
She further emphasized that re-evaluating existing datasets with modern analytical tools could lead to new discoveries at a relatively low cost, boosting national revenue, strengthening energy security, and supporting Liberia’s long-term development goals.
Overall, the workshop offered a vital platform for knowledge sharing, technical validation, and strategic partnership, reinforcing NOCAL’s commitment to making Liberia a competitive and investment-ready petroleum province.
