Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:FOG) is hopeful that it will be awarded a shale gas exploration licence for Karoo Basin in the second half of the year.
“The board now expects that the exploration right over the acreage will be awarded in 2016,” the company said in its interim statement.
The Karoo Basin is located in South Africa, and the board says that it’s confident it is a “well-suited” area in which to find shale oil and shale gas.
Elsewhere in its interim results for the three months to March, Falcon said it was debt-free with nearly US$12mln in cash.
It also reduced its general and admin expenses by 12% to US$0.5mln from US$0.6mln a year earlier, as a result of its “continued focus on strict cost management.”
Its total loss for the period was US$1.3mln.
Shares were up 0.15p, or 2%, to 7.9p.