Madagascar Oil

Madagascar Oil was founded in 2004 by Canadian engineer Sam Malin and Australian businessman Alan Bond. Its parent company was originally Madagascar Oil Limited (Mauritius).

In March 2006, simultaneous with a US$60m fund raising to North American managed hedge funds, the parent company was reorganised as Madagascar Oil Limited in Bermuda. In 2006, Madagascar Oil launched its first licensing round involving 44 offshore blocks in the Morondava Basin.

In 2008, a joint venture agreement was executed with Total S.A. granting it operatorship and a 60% interest in the Bemolanga tar sands. In 2010, it raised £50 million in its IPO to finance a pilot project in the Tsimiroro Field.

Madagascar Oil was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange from 2010 until 2016. In December 2010, the trade of company's share was suspended after the Malagasy government announcement that most of the company's oil licenses would be annulled. The dispute was solved and the trade at the AIM restarted in June 2011. The company delisted in 2016, as a condition of its lenders recapitalising the company.

On 15 April 2015, the Madagascar government granted to the company a 25-year license on the oil production at the Tsimiroro block 3104. In February 2019, the new Madagascar president Andry Rajoelina cancelled an ongoing licensing round involving 44 blocks in the Morondava basin until further notice.