The group of small oil companies driving the Horse Hill oil project, near Gatwick airport, have been cleared to carry out production testing.
UK Oil & Gas Investments, a 20% stakeholder, this morning confirmed that the UK regulator the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) had granted consent for the proposed testing and all necessary permissions are now in place.
It was the biggest news on a busy day for the small caps, which also saw Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) reveal the success of an appraisal well, offshore Senegal.
The oil firm said SNE-2, the first of three planned wells to evaluate the November 2014 discovery, had encountered high quality ‘pay’ (12 metres) which flowed at a constrained rate of 8,000 barrels per day.
Away from oil, sapphire miner Richland Resources (LON:TLD) revealed that non-exec director Nicholas Sibley has further increased his share interest in the firm.
It was one of a number of board-related stories, along with Redx Pharma (LON:REDX), which bolstered its board with the appointment of a former Merck (NYSE:MRK) research and drug development specialist.
Dr Bernhard Kirschbaum, 57, has been added as a non-executive director with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, Avation (LON:AVAP) chairman Jeff Chatfield has shown his faith in the company by spending just over £180,000 on stock in the aircraft leasing group.
BATM Advanced Communications (LON:BVC) announced it has appointed Moti Nagar, chief financial officer, to its board as an executive director.
Speaking of CFOs, Trinity Exploration & Production (LON:TRIN) said its CFO Bryan Ramsumair has stepped down, effective from December 31.
Away from the boardroom, Midatech Pharma (LON: MTPH, NASDAQ) signed a licensing agreement with privately owned Emergex Vaccines that will see the latter use the former’s gold nanoparticle technology to develop vaccines against infectious diseases.
Staying in the pharma sector, biomedical firm Netscientific (LON:NSCI) announced its subsidiary Wanda has inked a deal with a US home nursing group to provide its chronic condition digital management system.
In the mining space, Vast Resources (LON:VAST) unveiled a financing deal with investor Crede to raise up to £5mln to further development in Romania.
Elsewhere, Stratmin Global (LON:STGR) says it's off to a great start for 2016 after receiving the first tranche of £500,000 funding under the previously announced deal with Bass Metals.
In the tech world, Arria NLG (LON:NLG) has ventured into the utilities sector with its latest deal with a major firm in the eastern region of the United States.
In other news, KrisEnergy (SGX:SK3) gave a bullish production update and logged a 48% increase in its reserves.
The company, which has stakes in fields in the Gulf of Thailand, Indonesia and one onshore in Bangladesh, said its share of production was just under 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day as at January 1.
Meanwhile, React Energy (LON:REAC) announced new plans for the Newry Biomass plant, in northern Ireland, where a deal has been done to ‘repower’ the project.
Finally, China-focused gas producer Green Dragon (LON:GDG) reported a 36% increase in gross production for 2015 compared to the previous year, underscoring its confidence for the future.
The firm delivered an exit rate of 12.12 BCFPY (billion cubic feet per year) for 2015 against a target of 12 BCFPY.