Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas, a Canadian oil exploration company, will list on London's junior AIM market on Feb. 7, raising 4.8 million British pounds (US$6 million) to help finance a drilling campaign offshore Guyana with partner Tullow Oil.

Eco Atlantic, which expects to have a market cap of about 20 million British pounds when it lists on Feb. 7, will be the only AIM-listed company with oil assets in offshore Guyana, an area that the United States Geological Survey has earmarked as one of the world's top-rated underexplored basins, and where ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) has already made a large discovery.

"We want to list now because of our recent Guyana discoveries and our exploration program with Tullow Oil that is set to start at the beginning of the second quarter," Eco Atlantic CEO Gil Holzman told Reuters.

"The overall improvement in the oil exploration sector is also helping."

Eco Atlantic also owns several licenses to drill offshore Namibia, one of which is also in partnership with Tullow.

Eco Atlantic's listing follows the flotation of Diversified Gas & Oil, the largest oil and gas listing on AIM since mid-2014, during the week of Jan. 30.

(US$1 = 0.8085 British pounds)