Shares in Caspian Sunrise PLC (AIM:CASP), the oil and gas company operating in Kazakhstan, rose 8% to 2.16p after it accelerated and expanded its drilling programme at the BNG Contract Area.
The company said encouraging results at its Yelemes Deep structure had prompted it to bring forward and add to its drilling plans.
Three further deep wells are now to be drilled at the structure, with Deep Wells 701 and 707 expected to be spudded in July 2026.
The expansion follows progress at Deep Well 803, which has been deepened to 3,927 metres and had previously produced oil under test from a Lower Triassic sandstone reservoir.
The company plans to perforate and test further intervals at the well in an effort to increase production, though it cautioned that the deeper target interval had not yet been fully penetrated or tested.
Deep Well 701 will be drilled to a planned depth of 5,000 metres, targeting Permian and Carboniferous reservoirs, including a Moscowian interval that produced about 107 barrels of oil per day when tested at a neighbouring well.
Well 707 will be drilled to 3,500 metres to test a fault-related structure, while a third well, Deep Well 703, is planned for the second half of 2026.
Drilling at Deep Well 703 is intended to support a potential upgrade of reserves under the Kazakhstan classification system, and will also evaluate an interval that flowed oil at more than 1,000 barrels per day in testing at a nearby well.
A separate shallow well is planned at the Airshagyl structure to evaluate a palaeochannel feature identified through seismic analysis.
The licence at Yelemes Deep was renewed in December 2025 as an appraisal licence, carrying an obligation to drill three deep wells before the end of 2027 to qualify for a 25-year production licence.
The company also said it had received independent reserve estimates for the Yelemes area, prepared under Kazakh state methodology, though these have yet to be approved by the country's reserves commission
