By Dipo Olowookere
Pan-African explorer, Oranto Petroleum, has acquired 90 percent stake in two exploration blocks located onshore Zambia. The oil blocks are Blocks 17 and 27 and they represent Oranto’s first investment in the country.
Oranto Petroleum and its sister company Atlas Petroleum International, comprise the largest African independent by acreage, with active exploration and production programs across the continent, including Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan and Uganda.
Under the agreement, Oranto Petroleum will hold a 90 percent stake and ZCCM Investment Holdings will control a 10 percent share, on behalf of the Zambian Government.
The Nigerian company will be required to conduct geological and geophysical studies for first two 2-year sub-periods.
Current operators in Zambia include Tullow Oil and Bowleven.
Though only marginal finds have been discovered, the under-explored market shares basins with Tanzania to the northeast and Angola to the west — both of which have hosted mega oil and gas discoveries.
Commenting on the deal, Chairman of Oranto Petroleum, Mr Arthur Eze, remarked that, “Oranto Petroleum is committed to an aggressive work program to increase the level of prospectivity in one of the world’s last true frontier markets.”
“Our specialty at Oranto Petroleum is discovering the vast potential of Africa’s frontier oil and gas markets, and we are very pleased to add Zambia to our extensive portfolio.
“We are committed to developing Zambia into an oil and gas producing nation, as we have many times with other countries on the continent,” he said further.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka