Australian African Petroleum Corp and Anadarko Petroleum Corp (NYSE:APC) announced yesterday that they had made new oil discoveries off the coasts of Liberia and Sierra Leone . . . Australian African Petroleum Corp owns 100 percent of two Liberian offshore oil blocks . . . ownership of the Sierra Leone is shared by three companies with Anadarko owning 55 percent; Repsol YPF (Spain) 25 percent, and Tullow Oil (UK) 20 percent . . . this is the second oil find Anadarko has made off the coast of Sierra Leone . . . West African oil exploration has surged since Tullow Oil discovered the Jubilee field off Ghana in 2007 . . . the new finds need further evaluation to establish estimates of their sizes and economic viability . . . the discovery could be extremely helpful to boost the economies of war-torn Liberia and Sierra Leone . . . the discovery could also help Sierra Leone’s president win reelection in November.