Shares in Independent Resources plc (LON:IRG) rocketed more than 700% this week after it was confirmed that the team behind bulletin board favourite Sound Energy PLC (LON:SOU) was moving in.
Sound has taken a 29.9% stake in Tunisia-focused Independent, as well as three board seats.
An open offer will raise up to £1.5mln, while small caps specialist Greenberry will snap up £650,000-worth of new shares at 0.065p and provide a £1mln loan.
As part of the upheaval, Independent’s name will change to Echo Energy (see what they did there?!) to reflect the change in ownership.
Sticking with Sound, the company said its latest well on the Tendrara licence in Morocco has reached the final casing point.
TE-8’s liner is being cemented at a depth of 2,603 metres and is just two metres from the main reservoir in the TAGI formation. The well will be drilled to a vertical depth of 2,977 metres.
Assuming gas is encountered in the main well bore, a further 30-day side-track will be drilled to prove a potentially deeper gas contact 900 metres to the north-west.
In other news, Aminex plc (LON:AEX) and its partner Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO) revealed the flow rates from the newly drilled Ntorya-2 appraisal well which the companies said represents a “very significant result”.
The Ntorya-2 well is located some 1.5 kilometres from the original Ntorya-1 discovery well and it has intersected a much larger gas reservoir zone – cutting a 51 metre gross reservoir package (net pay estimated at around 30 metres) compared to the 4 metres of pay tested in Ntorya-1.
During drilling there was a significant influx of gas into the well, and as a result the company had to adapt which resulted in constricted gas flow during testing.
Nonetheless, Aminex said the limited flow of gas amounted to a rate of 17mln cubic feet per day, which would be 2,833 barrels oil equivalent per day.
Elsewhere, Providence Resources PLC (LON:PVR) and Europa Oil & Gas Plc (LON:EOG) shares jumped on Wednesday after landing separate farm-out deals with Cairn Energy PLC (LON:CNE).
Cairn is taking a 30% stake in Providence’s FEL 2/14 which contains the Druid exploration project, where drilling is planned this year - Cairn will now cover 45% of the well costs, up to US$42mln.
Meanwhile, Cairn will take 70% of Europa’s Licensing Option 16/19 by covering the costs of a US$6mln work programme, including 3D seismic.
Highlands Natural Resources Plc (LON:HNR) has told investors that its arrangement with Renegade Oil & Gas Company LLC has been redrawn, and it sees HNR significantly enhance its land position in the Niobrara shale play in East Denver, Colorado.
The revised deal also gives HNR more operational flexibility, allowing the engineering team to save up to US$500,000 for every well it drills.
Significantly, it puts HNR in direct control of the lease which simplifies and accelerates the procedural elements of the project planning beyond the first six wells already specified by the original Renegade agreement.
And finally, Angus Energy Plc (LON:ANGS) has denied suggestions that its work programme at the Brockham field was ‘unauthorised’.
In a stock market statement, the company said: “Angus Energy notes the BBC London news item yesterday evening where claims were made that the Brockham X4Z well drilling was 'unauthorised'.