ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast has awarded Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) two new onshore oil blocks, a government spokesman said on Thursday, expanding the company's footprint in the Gulf of Guinea.
The two blocks - CI-521 and CI-522 - are near Ivory Coast's eastern border with Ghana, where Tullow operates the Jubilee oil and gas field and is developing the TEN fields.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Abidjan, government spokesman Bruno Kone said SECI, a unit of French industrial group Bouygues (PA:BOUY), had also signed contracts for two blocks.
SECI paid a signing bonus of $2.5 million (£1.8 million) while Tullow paid $1.125 million, Kone said, adding that Ivory Coast's state oil company Petroci retained a 10 percent stake in all four blocks.
London-listed Tullow now has stakes in seven Ivorian blocks, having bought 90 percent stakes in four other onshore blocks in October. It also has a 21.33 percent position in the Espoir field, which is operated by Canada's CNR.
In September, an international tribunal ruled in favour of Ghana in a dispute with Ivory Coast over the two countries' maritime boundary, clearing the way for Tullow to resume development of its acreage along the border.