Nigeria Content Online

Oil explorer,
Tullow Oil, says it is buying 50 percent stakes in six exploration
licences in Kenya and Ethiopia, as the hunt for oil in East Africa
gathers pace.

Tullow said on
Thursday that the positions it is acquiring are in the East African
Rift Basin, which has a similar geology to Uganda’s Lake Albert Rift
Basin.

The East African Rift Basin has oil fields big enough to turn Uganda into a top-50 oil producer.

London-listed Tullow will become the operator of five licences, as part of a deal with Canadian explorer, Africa Oil Corp.

Interest in East
Africa, which is much less explored than West Africa, has been rising
on the back of Tullow’s Ugandan discovery and a gas find by U.S. firm,
Anadarko, off the coast of Mozambique in February.