Rialto Energy received formal confirmation from the government of Côte d'Ivoire, Africa, that it has been granted an exclusive exploitation area (EEA) over the Gazelle field on Block CI-202. The EEA grants Rialto with the right to produce hydrocarbons from the field over a tenure period of 25 years.

The Gazelle field is the current focus of an initial three well drilling campaign by Rialto, which commenced with the drilling of the Gazelle-P3 development well in March 2012, and will be followed by further development and exploration drilling in and around the field during the coming months.

The current program is aimed at converting the 58 million barrels of oil equivalent of contingent resources at the field into reserves, as well as testing the high-impact Chouette oil prospect, which contains gross mean prospective resources of 84 million barrels of oil.