Shares in Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (LON:COPL) advanced on Wednesday as US oil supermajor ExxonMobil began drilling a high impact exploration well offshore Liberia.
COPL owns a 17% stake in the exploration project, though its share of drilling costs are covered by Exxon.
The well, known as Mesurado-1, is located some 50 miles from the Liberian coast and is in 2,500 metres of water.
Mesurado’s target has been estimated to host 1.78bn to 4.2bn of gross prospective recoverable oil resources, which would equate to between 305mln and 720mln barrels net for COPL’s interest in the project.
The project is on trend with exploration successes in neighbouring countries such as Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana.