Maersk Oil announced on 23 February that it had acquired 50 percent of five Africa Oil Corp. oil exploration licenses in Ethiopia and Kenya. Two of these licenses are contiguous licenses in Southern Ethiopia while the rest three are onshore exploration in Northern part of Kenya.

According to E&P, the transaction has the blessings from the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments.

The licenses area covers approximately 100,000 square meters. In additional to this, the area includes nine recent oil discoveries.

Appraisal activities as well as ongoing exploration are still being carried out, E&P reported. E&P further noted four of the blocks are operated by Tullow Oil while one is operated by Africa Oil.

Following the acquisition, Chief Growth Officer of Maersk Oil, Ebbie Haan, said his company was now officially a partner in all five licenses. 

Source: E&P