EnQuest PLC (LON:ENQ) shares advanced more than 5% on Friday morning after the North Sea oil firm told investors that its latest drill programme had been “excellent”.
Drilling of the Scolty/Crathes development wells, in the Greater Kittiwake Area, was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, it said.
Scolty was described as ‘on prognosis’ while the Crathes reservoir ‘exceeded expectations with a small reserves upgrade’.
The oiler also highlighted that the Eagle exploration well, drilled in the second quarter, confirmed a new discovery and preliminary analysis indicated an oil bearing reservoir with a ‘vertical thickness’ of 67 feet.
It added that as no oil-water contact was encountered there is potential ‘upside volumes’ on the flank of the discovery.
The encouraging early analysis suggests the discovery’s total recoverable reserves could be of a similar size to the nearby Gadwell field (which has 6mln barrels and was brought back into production by EnQuest last year).
Richard Savage, analyst at broker Mirabaud, in a note, said that whilst the discovery was likely to be relatively modest in size it should be commercial as an “inexpensive tie-in” to EnQuest’s existing infrastructure.
EnQuest shares gained 1.9p, 5.6%, to change hands at 33.79p each.