Israel's Delek Group said on Dec. 26 it acquired 13.18% of Faroe Petroleum Plc from Dana Petroleum Ltd. for 42.77 million British pounds (US$52.6 million) as part of a strategy to expand its international energy activities.

Delek bought from Dana Petroleum all the Faroe shares it owned--48.06 million--at 89 pence each.

Faroe is an E&P operating in the North Sea. Its shares traded on AIM closed at 99 pence on Dec. 23 for a company valuation of 360 million pounds.

Faroe's portfolio includes about 60 drilling, evaluation, development and production licenses for oil and gas in the North Sea, in Norway and in the U.K.

As of Jan. 1, resources stood at 61 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), and following completion of a transaction for the acquisition of additional assets in December, proven resources are expected to increase by 20 MMboe.

In the first half of 2016, Faroe produced 9, Mboe/d, and following acquisition of the additional assets, daily production is expected to grow between 17 Mboe/d and 18 Mboe/d.

Faroe has no controlling shareholder, and upon completion of the acquisition, Delek will be its largest single shareholder.

"Acquisition of the Faroe shares is synergistic with, and complements the purchase of, 20% of the shares of Ithaca, which we did about a year ago," Asaf Bartfeld, Delek's CEO, said. (US$1 = 0.8137 British pounds)