South Korea’s top refiner SK Innovation Co. is set to acquire a U.S. shale oil company Longfellow Nemaha LLC to accelerate its shale oil development business in North America.

The Korean company said Wednesday its U.S.-based subsidiary SK E&P America signed an agreement with the U.S. firm to buy 100 percent of its stake, including an interest in two of its shale oil assets in the U.S. The refiner plans to finalize the deal within the first half of this year.

Earlier, SK Innovation revealed in a disclosure its plans to invest about 485.3 billion won ($453.1 million) in SK E&P America for funding M&As and other businesses in the U.S., including lease and drilling.

The exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed but analysts estimate the acquisition and additional investments to amount to about 300 billion won.

In 2014, SK Innovation became the first Korean company to acquire operation rights in the U.S. for two shale oil fields, one each in Oklahoma and Texas.

Longfellow’s oil assets are located in Oklahoma’s STACK (Sooner Trend, Anadarko, Canadian and Kingfisher) play, about 40 kilometers away from the Korean company’s Oklahoma field in Grant and Garfield counties.

SK Innovation plans to focus on developing its existing Oklahoma fields and gradually broaden its scope to nearby areas.

As of late 2017, the company owns reserves estimated at 530 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 13 fields from nine countries, with production averaging 55,000 BOE per day.

Shares of SK Innovation closed Wednesday up 0.24 percent at 212,000 won.

By Kang Doo-soon and Kim Hyo-jin

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