LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - London-listed SOCO International (SIA.L) has sold a 20 percent stake in a Congolese oil block to Japanese oil company Inpex Corp (1605.T) for $25 million, it said on Thursday.
Congo produces about 25,000 barrels a day from an offshore zone to the west of the country, and SOCO has begun exploratory drilling for oil at its onshore Nganzi block, also in the west, with results expected within two months.
"(It will) help with the eventual exportation of crude oil," Roger Cagle, deputy chief executive and chief finance officer of SOCO said by telephone, noting Inpex was a 32.38 percent shareholder in Congo's oil export terminal.
Tokyo-based Inpex merged in 2006 with Teikoku Oil, which has drilled oil in Congo since the 1970s. Inpex is to pay 40 percent of historic and drilling costs, after which it will fund 20 percent of costs, Cagle said.
Cagle said drilling the three exploration wells was likely to cost $50 million and estimates that 600 million barrels of recoverable resources will be found in the three wells.
SOCO International's stake, via its local subsidiary, will decline to 65 percent from 85 percent. State oil company Cohydro will maintain its 15 percent share.
(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
