Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) will build a significant land position in Utah as a result of a US$2mln farm-in deal its new US team has brokered.
The licences cover 195,000 net acres in the Uinta and Paradox Basins in east of the state and host one shut-in well.
Work will target two prolific unconventional shale resource plays: the Mancos and Cane Creek.
Rose chief executive Matthew Idiens said: "This farm-in agreement is a major step forward in Rose Petroleum's establishment as a significant player in the unconventional shale resource arena and affords us the opportunity to develop substantial reserves in two established producing plays.
“This opportunity has come about as a direct result of our US-based oil and gas team and their expertise in unconventional shale resource play evaluation and specific experience in these two basins."
The cash will be paid in five tranches to the seller, the Rockies Standard Oil Company, with two payments totalling US$500,000 having already been made.
Rose will carry its partner for drilling programmes costing US$9.5m in the Mancos and US$7.5m in the Cane Creek.
In January it the group announced its move into hydrocarbons with the acquisition of the Konstanz and Biberach licences in south western Germany, both of which are in the Molasse Basin.
Together they span more than 635,000 acres and have both shale gas and oil, as well as conventional hydrocarbons.
The acquisition was the first stage in Rose’s move into oil and gas from minerals.