London-listed small-cap oil and gas investor Westmount Energy Limited (AIM:WTE, OTCQB:WMELF) has taken a shareholding in Canada’s Africa Oil Corp (TSX:AOI), purchasing 300,000 shares in the open market.
The transactions have an aggregate cost of £538,633, paid from Westmount’s existing cash resources, and give it a 0.065% interest in the successful and well-regarded E&P company.
Significantly, Westmount said the Africa Oil stake increases its exposure to upcoming drilling in the Canje and Orinduik blocks, offshore Guyana, along with interest in a four-well programme at the Venus project in the increasingly high-profile Orange basin, offshore Namibia.
It highlighted specifically that the shareholding represents a liquid, publicly traded asset with exposure to potential Guyanese drilling from 2024 and exposure to potentially high impact, lower risk, appraisal drilling and testing outcomes on the giant Venus discovery – which is expected to deliver newsflow throughout 2023.
“This investment is consistent with Westmount's strategy of seeking exposure to high-impact drilling outcomes, in particular, in the prolific Guyana-Suriname and Orange basins which the board considers to be major emerging hydrocarbon provinces,” the company said in a statement.
“Westmount is of the view that AOC offers a unique investment opportunity for its exposure to the giant Venus light oil and associated gas discovery offshore Namibia, as it is the only publicly-listed independent oil and gas company with an effective economic interest (approximately 6.2%) in this field, which is understood to be the largest oil discovery globally in 2022.”
The shareholding in Africa Oil equates to around 9.6% of the value of Westmount's gross assets, the AIM-quoted investor noted.