The company told the market yesterday that it had signed a conditional purchase agreement with Canada’s Stratic Energy to acquire a 100% interest in the Kerkouane permit.

This follows November’s acquisition of the onshore Chorbane permit in Tunisia by AuDAX in partnership with fellow ASX-listed Kairiki Energy.

In return for the Kerkouane permit, AuDAX will pay Stratic $US1 million cash and also undertake a 400km 2D seismic survey and drill one well within the next two years.

AuDAX said previous geological and geophysical work had identified several leads and prospects in the block.

“Further technical evaluation is required to high grade those leads and prospects and select the most promising exploration drilling target,” the company said.

The Kerkouane permit also includes the Dougga gas condensate discovery made by Shell in the early 1980s and is immediately northwest of the abandoned Tazerka oil field, discovered around the same time.

“The permit has an excellent location – near existing oil and gas fields in producing hydrocarbon basins – and that, together with Tunisia’s favorable fiscal regime, makes it one of the best places for AuDAX to explore for and develop oil and gas in North Africa,” AuDAX managing director Wolfgang Zimmer said.