The Melbourne-based junior said the strategic alliance agreement with East African Exploration would provide a strong joint bid for exploration acreage in the region.

“Both Gippsland Offshore and EAX bring key exploration technologies to the joint venture which will enhance future joint bids for exploration acreage in Kenya,” the company said.

Gippsland Offshore has exclusive access to the FALCON airborne gravity gradiometry technology, through an exclusive agreement with BHP Billiton, while EAX has the rights to the Goresorber surface geochemistry techniques.

Both techniques are non-invasive and allow the cost-effective and rapid assessment of large areas, both on and off shore.

Based in Dubai, EAX is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Black Marlin Energy, which has built up a regional database with GeoMark Research in Houston.

“This, coupled with access to onshore, transitional and marine seismic and petroleum seabed coring, through sister company Upstream Petroleum Services Limited, provides a formable tool kit for modern day exploration of an under-explored petroleum-rich, frontier area,” Gippsland Offshore said.

“Gippsland Offshore has selected EAX as its partner in a recent bid for acreage in Madagascar acreage and is pleased with the collaboration to date.”

In other company news, Gippsland Offshore has called off a $25 million proposed takeover of Finder Exploration.

Since the announcement in late August, Gippsland Offshore said Finder was unable to satisfy its due diligence process and also tried to negotiate a “significant” increase in the purchase price.

“Against this background and after a sustained attempt to reach a new agreement, Gippsland Offshore has decided it is not in the best interests of shareholders to further pursue this takeover,” the company said in a statement on Monday.