Upland Resources (LSE:UPL) traded higher in Friday’s early deals after the explorer confirmed it is now in a formal process of assessing an onshore rig capable of developing its Sarawak project in Malaysia.
In a stock market statement, the company said its technical team is conducting rig evaluations during a visit to a site in Australia against specific requirements and well design specifications.
The hope is that the rig will be confirmed as suitable to advance the project timeline and, in the words of Upland chair Bolhassan Di, “maximize the potential of this global scale asset in the most time efficient manner”.
Bolhassan Di noted that the company anticipates updating the market on further progress “throughout the month of August”.
Upland told investors its focus is turning to commercial arrangements and formalising partnerships towards a drilling campaign and it does not envisage raising capital by issuing new equity to fund wells, as it said “the company is well financed to meet its operational commitments into 2024”.
In London, Upland shares were up around 12%, changing hands at 0.81p, valuing the company at just under £8mln.