Rialto Energy Limited has received Ministerial and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) approval to acquire a 12.5% participating interest in the Offshore Accra Contract Area, Ghana, West Africa (the "Accra Block").

The Company is acquiring its interest alongside fellow new entrants Ophir Ghana (Accra) Limited ("Ophir", 20%) and Vitol Upstream (Accra) Limited (30%), joining existing partners Afex Oil (Ghana) Limited (20%) and Tap Oil (Ghana) Limited ("Tap", 17.5%, current operator), together the "Contractor Group". As part of the transaction, operatorship is transferring from Tap to Ophir.

The Accra Block contains a number of prospects, including Starfish, a large, deep-water prospect, which according to the current operator is analogous to the Jubilee discovery with unrisked prospective resources estimated to be in the range of half a billion barrels (431 mmbbls (P50); 665 mmbbls (PMean)). The prospect is recommended for drilling in 2013.

Tags: Rialto Energy