SOCO completed the acquisition of Merlon Petroleum El Fayum Company, oil and gas company with a 100% operated working interest in the onshore El Fayum concession in Egypt, from Merlon International. SOCO paid approximately $136m in cash and the issued nearly 66m new SOCO shares to the seller. Ed Story, President and Chief Executive Officer of SOCO, commented:"I am delighted that we have completed the Merlon transaction which puts SOCO once again on a growth trajectory. We welcome our new colleagues to SOCO and very much looking forward to working with them. We are proud of having achieved completion early in 2019, which is testament to the quality of professionalism of the team and the strong relationships that have been established in country with EGPC. This is a significant step forward in SOCO's stated objective of expanding and diversifying its resource base to create a full-cycle, growth orientated E&P company of scale. We now have a platform for SOCO to build a material business in Egypt and MENA."