africa oil buys stake in wilton petroleum ltd

Africa Oil Buys Stake in Wilton Petroleum Ltd

05-13-2008

The Directors of Africa Oil -- an investment vehicle with a focus on the upstream oil and gas sector in Africa announceed that the Company has signed a subscription agreement to subscribe for 10,714 shares in privately owned Wilton Petroleum Limited ("Wilton") for UK755,439 payable in cash -- giving it a 9.68% stake in the company.

Africa Oil has also signed an option agreement with Wilton's shareholders - giving Africa Oil the right to acquire the remaining shares in Wilton (a further 90.32% interest) in exchange for the issue of shares in Africa Oil, at the same value as Africa Oil's initial subscription.

Wilton is a hydrocarbon exploration and production company with assets in onshore Madagascar. It has a 100% interest in Block 2102 situated in the center of the Majunga Basin in the northwest of the country.

Wilton has established a strong commercial and technical team with a focus on heavy oil, and has identified a number of opportunities that it expects to access in the coming months to add to its existing asset base.

Wilton's technical team is led by Dr Nigel Banks who has extensive experience of exploration and development of assets in many areas of the world, having led the Cairn Energy geoscience team in India at the time of the discovery and appraisal of the Rajasthan oil discoveries, and worked in Madagascar, Nigeria, Malaysia, Russia and South America. Dr Banks has a D. Phil in geology from Oxford University and, in addition to Cairn, has also worked for Shell, Occidental and Bitech Petroleum.

Managing Director David Carr says: "We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Wilton. This is an exiting investment, which we look forward to developing, while further growing our portfolio in due course. We look forward to updating the market in the coming months as we explore potential acquisitions."