On a day when housebuilders dominated the headlines in the large cap space, oil and gas minnows were the talk of the small caps today.
Kicking off with LGO Energy (LON:LGO), which told investors that drilling operations were now underway for well GY-678, its seventh development well this year at the Goudron field in Trinidad.
GY-678 is designed to be similar to last year’s GY-670 well, which came online in November, and had significant net oil pay of around 242 feet in the targeted C-Sand reservoirs.
Elsewhere, Tethys Petroleum’s (LON:TPL, TSE:TPL) turnaround is now well underway, according to executive chairman John Bell.
The Kazakhstan-focussed oil and gas business, which last week entered takeover talks with Nostrum (LON:NOG), today revealed a 77% increase in gas output to 3,250 barrels oil equivalent per day which marked it as the best quarter for gas production for three years.
KrisEnergy (SGX:SK3) has confirmed that ‘first oil’ production has now been achieved at the Wassana field, in the Gulf of Thailand.
Oil production began on August 14, just fifteen month after KrisEnergy took the project on.
Meanwhile, Green Dragon Gas (LON:GDG) has revealed an 8% increase in revenue, to US$16.8mln, and a 121% rise in gross profit to US$11.9mln in the first six month of 2015.
The Chinese gas firm said the improvement was due to higher gas sales volumes and stable prices.
In mining news, Condor Gold (LON:CNR) said a recent round of soil sampling has “enhanced” the potential of its La India property in Nicaragua.
La India is already host to 2.4mln ounces of gold, including a high-grade open pit resource of just under 1.1mln ounces.
In other gold news, KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI) said it remains on schedule with its plans for the Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia, which should begin commissioning towards the end of next year.
Key among the recent milestones has been short-listing of potential mine contractors and firms interested in constructing Tulu Kapi.
To pharma, and Summit Therapeutics (LON:SUMM) revealed a potential breakthrough drug for an incurable condition is now headed into the next phase of clinical development.
Its treatment, SMT C1100, offers hope to sufferers of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle wasting disease that affects boys.
Meanwhile, Sphere Medical Holding (LON:SPHR) said Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (OCD) had decided not to exercise its option to acquire the global commercialisation rights for Proxima 4, its blood monitoring system.
It follows a change of focus and ownership at OCD, which has been taken over by the US private equity giant Carlyle Group.
Finally, OCD’s decision may actually leave Sphere better placed to commercial the device, which has gained market traction in the UK and Europe under its third iteration.
The surge in popularity for the .xyz web domains has propelled CentralNic (LON:CNIC) to the top of the rankings.
CentralNic is now ranked as the number one wholesale distributor - or ‘registry backend’ - for new top level internet domains, according to industry statistics provided by ntldstats.com.