Botswana-focused oil company Strata-X has tripled its lease area in the heart of the African nation’s coal seam gas (CSG) area.

Strata-X (ASX:SXA) has bought two new licences covering 405,735 acres, so its Serowe CSG project now spans 690,000 acres.

Strata-X shares jumped 20 per cent on the news to 3c.

The new acreage lies adjacent to a bitumen highway between Serowe, the regional capital, and Orapa, the site of the world’s largest diamond mine and large potential energy market.

“With the new licences, Strata-X now has 680,000 acres in its 100 per cent owned Serowe CSG Project, which is located within the Kalahari Basin CSG fairway,” said chairman Ron Prefontaine.

“The new additions provide our shareholders material upside for our proposed appraisal programmes in Botswana.”

Environmental approvals for the appraisal program are expected in the third quarter of 2018.

The proposed appraisal programme is designed to prove commercial completion methods and convert resources to reserves.