Iona Energy Inc. announced that its U.K. subsidiary, Iona Energy Co. (UK) Ltd. has closed the acquisition of an operated 58.73% interest in U.K. Block 13/21a containing the West Wick oil field from Centrica Venture Production Co.

The U.K. government's Department of Energy and Climate Change has also completed the license assignment. Under the terms of the sale and purchase agreement, Iona has completed a $5.1 million payment to Centrica.

The closing of the West Wick acquisition brings Iona's net 1P oil and gas reserves to 16 MMboe and net 2P oil and gas reserves to 31.7 MMboe and pre-tax net present values discounted at 10% of $431 million and $1.19 billion respectively.

The West Wick oil discovery is 3.75 km west of the producing Captain oil field. Oil was discovered within the Cretaceous Upper and Lower Captain sandstone reservoirs and correlates to the same reservoirs of the Captain field that have produced since 1997.

Block 13/21a is covered by 3-D seismic and Iona believes the deeper Jurassic stratigraphy offers further exploration potential underlying the block and an evaluation of this potential is planned to commence immediately.

Iona's CEO, Neill Carson, said, "We are very excited to add the Iona-operated West Wick field to our rapidly growing portfolio of high-quality development assets, and its planned development fits nicely with our goal of a new development every 12-18 months. This is clearly an area in which we can grow and compliments our development portfolio nicely. At 31.7 MMboe of 2P reserves, we believe we have reached critical mass allowing us to take the company to the next level."