Oando plc has acquired 49.8% of two offshore blocks representing Royal Dutch Shell’s interest in the blocs. The acquisition is the first time an indigenous oil company has acquired productive assets from a foreign oil company in Nigeria.

Agency reports say Oando has paid 10% of the transaction and the balance of $563 will be paid on completion of the transaction. The deal is said to be financed by a mixture of cash and finance from Standard Chartered Bank, Standard Bank, BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch.

The Oil blocks officially designated Oil Mining Licence (OML) 125 and 134 are deep water blocks co-owned with Agip, a unit of Eni, which owns the remaining 50.2percent in each block. OML 125 produced 12,000 barrels a day of oil net to Eni in 2006. During 2006, Agip made a new discovery of both oil and gas in a well located in the block. OML-134 is still in exploration phase.

Royal Dutch Shell had previously rejected a bid from the Chinese oil giant PetroChina for OML 125. The bid said to be in the region of $300million to $400millionwas deemed to be too low.

Shell’s sale of the block is part of the oil major’s restructuring program initiated last November, after its oil production facilities in the Niger Delta came under repeated militant attacks and lost significant production.