Ameena Indimi, an executive director of the Oriental Energy Resources Limited based in Nigeria's capital Abuja, said her company had get the federal government's approval to acquire the oil marginal field located 78 km offshore in southeastern Nigeria.

She said under the terms of the Farm-Out Agreement (FOA), executed with Mobil and NNPC, Oriental was "now the operator of the Ebok field."

The license of farm-in into the oil field located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 67 is owned by Mobil and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the country's state-owned oil company.

The Abuja-based private oil firm is a privately held Nigerian oil exploration and production company, operating on Nigeria's Okwok oil field and an oil mining area of OML115.

The Ebok field was originally discovered and partially appraised by Mobil and NNPC in 1968.

According to her, Oriental will operate three new wells acquired this time within 2007, bringing to 11 the total number of wells drilled on its two blocks to date.