Hyperdynamics Corporation has announced that last week Famourou Kourouma, Hyperdynamics' Vice President of Guinea Affairs traveled to Washington, D.C. together with Executive Vice President, Harry Briers. In a private meeting Mr. Kourouma was formally introduced to Phillip Carter III, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea. The two met with the Ambassador for some time regarding its operations in Guinea. While Mr. Kourouma is preparing to return to Guinea, he took the opportunity to also update Ambassador Carter regarding the recent visit of the presidential delegation sent directly by Guinea's Chief of State, President Lansana Conte to visit the Company in Houston.
When asked to comment Mr. Kourouma said, "I believe that Ambassador Carter sees that an open and transparent policy promoting the free democracy of Guinea is important and that regular and consistent communication between the two countries will help to continually strengthen relations. Being born and raised in Guinea and now as a U.S. citizen, I have no doubt that this would be great for both countries. We look forward to working closely with our new Ambassador in Guinea."
After the visit with Ambassador Carter, a meeting was held at the offices of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), where the executives were able to discuss at length the possible options for project insurance and financing. OPIC is a U.S. quasi-governmental organization that provides investment insurance and other financial services such as financing production facilities for companies operating in foreign countries.
While in Washington, Kourouma and Briers also attended the Economic Policy Forum and Reception in honor of the U.S. Ambassadors Serving in Sub-Saharan Africa. The event was held on Wednesday, October 17th at the Fairmont Hotel there in Washington, D.C. Most all the U.S. Ambassadors to the African nations attended. Other notable attendees were representatives of the Export Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) and OPIC. The event was sponsored by the Business Council for International Understanding and co-sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa. More information is available on these organizations at the following site: www.bciu.org.
Kent Watts, the Company's Chief Executive said, "Along the lines of the theme of the Economic Policy Forum, with the largest offshore oil and gas concession offshore West Africa, and as we move forward, we recognize the success of our work could be a major catalyst for Guinea's economic development. At the same time we cannot ignore the dire need for social aide programs. So far in Guinea, we have already engaged to help save lives during a recent and very serious Cholera outbreak. In this case, we were able to facilitate the availability of life saving treatment to numerous people including many children that otherwise could have perished. As we can, through alliances with organizations such as American Friends of Guinea, we plan to build up socially responsible programs that can make similar dramatic impact with relatively very little effort and cost. Examples include also drilling new clean water wells which can help prevent so many unnecessary deadly diseases. We see this as a moral obligation to help our friends in Guinea while we recognize that discovering their hydrocarbon reserves is the main focus and the absolute best way to help their economic development."