Hyperdynamics Makes Big Bet on African Oil

In West Africa, perhaps the most underexplored oil and gas region remaining in the world today, a tiny Texas exploration and production firm is poised to become a big player.

Hyperdynamics(HDY Quote), a Sugar Land, Texas, firm with an $80 million market cap, is preparing a drilling program for a 31,000 square-mile offshore mineral leasehold it controls through an agreement signed last year with the Republic of Guinea.

The area -- the size of South Carolina -- is larger than that of any other company in the region, including integrated giants such as Total(TOT Quote), Devon(DVN Quote) and Petrobras(PZE Quote), according to IHS, an energy-information-gathering firm. ...