"Experienced Executives With Worldwide Accomplishments"

Experience

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 JIM SMITHERMAN

Thirty years of exploration and production experience both domestically and internationally. Jim has a proven track record of creating significant corporate value by building modest petroleum operations into investor recognized performers. As President of UMC Petroleum’s international exploration and production efforts, the company experienced success and increased shareholder value with discoveries in Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and acquired Blocks in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen and Angola. He has negotiated Production Sharing Contracts on 25 Blocks in seven countries and managed relationships with Ministries, Partners, National Oil Companies and Embassies. Mr. Smitherman also has extensive U.S. exploration and development success in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Montana and California. Through creativity, leadership, focus and salesmanship, he has blended acquisitions, prospect generation, discoveries, cost management, property sales and government relations to enhance shareholder value. Mr. Smitherman has a BS degree in Business Administration and a Masters degree in Geology from Louisiana State University.

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JACK M. MCFARLAND

Twenty-nine years of drilling and production experience having worked in most major producing areas domestic and international.  He has proven ability as a team leader with a solid background in reservoir, operations and production engineering.   Most recently, he was the General Manager for international operations with 100+ employees, 19 offshore producing wells, 25,000 BOEPD production and a gas processing plant.  As Project Manager, he completed a $250 MM international development project that included the installation of offshore well support structures, conversion and installation of a jackup drilling rig to production facilities in 250’ of water and a 70 mile offshore/onshore gas transmission line – the first pipeline in the country.  He has been responsible for management of operations in Appalachian, Montana, California, Canada and Equatorial Guinea.  In addition, he had direct supervision of drilling and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Permian Basin, Mid-Continent and Cote d’Ivoire.  In reservoir evaluation, he managed a Corporate Reservoir Engineering Department for 10 years.  This resulted in several acquisitions per year ranging from M$ to MM$ and taking the lead or participating on a team evaluating five successful corporate acquisitions/mergers in six years.  In addition to the US, he has evaluation experience in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, North Sea, Cameroon, Angola, Congo, Algeria, Pakistan, Columbia, Trinidad, Brazil and Canada.  As Vice President for International Operation's, he routinely negotiated with foreign governments.  Accomplishments include negotiating the first gas contract with a Government in West Africa and initiating/team leader in the first field unitization agreement in Cote d’Ivoire.  He has actively participated in negotiations with Governments of Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Uzbekistan.  Mr. McFarland has a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and is a Registered Petroleum Engineer in the State of Texas.

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MASSIMO MELLI

Thirty-five years experience in exploration spanning five continents including exciting exploration plays in the North Sea, South China Sea, Libya and Nigeria. Formerly General Manager for UMC Equatorial Guinea, he is now putting together an organization to find new oil plays in his home land, Sicily.

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ROBERT F. GOLDSTEIN

Thirty years experience in domestic onshore and offshore exploration and production. While the majority of his experience is in the Gulf Coast area, he has also explored for hydrocarbons in the Baltimore Canyon area offshore New Jersey, the Arkoma Basin in northwestern Arkansas and the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. Originally trained as a geologist, Mr. Goldstein started integrating his geologic mapping skills with 2-D seismic data in 1977 while employed by Houston Oil & Minerals. This resulted in an integrated mapping interpretation utilizing all the disciplines in oil and gas exploration. Mr. Goldstein has also kept up with the technological advances in the industry and has been interpreting 3-D seismic data on a PC based workstation since 1994. He has demonstrated his proficiency in mapping prospects with documented discoveries on Galveston Block 391, Galveston Block 393 and Eugene Island Block 268. In his last position, Mr. Goldstein was an officer in a startup company that was acquiring producing properties in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. He used Power Tools economic evaluation software and made frequent technical presentations to financial institutions and investors. Mr. Goldstein has a Masters degree in Geology from Florida State University.