Hurricane Energy Plc (LON:HUR) had a busy week and it was a standout among London’s oil and gas stocks.
On Monday, the company unveiled a new assessment of the group’s oil discoveries massively increased the volume of oil on its books.
The new competent persons report assessed all Hurricane’s assets except for its most advanced, the Lancaster field, and it confirmed what many in the market had hoped for - that Hurricane’s successful drill campaign unearthed an awful lot of oil.
New discoveries Halifax and Lincoln have been estimated to host 1.23bn and 604mln barrels of crude respectively, whereas the untested (but substantially de-risked) Warwick prospect is estimated to contain a potential 935mln barrels. Including Lancaster, which was in May estimated to have 523mln barrels of recoverable resources, the new assessment take the group’s total inventory increasing 231% to 2.6bn barrels oil equivalent.
It then followed up with an operations update confirming that it remains on track for first production from the Lancaster oil field during the first half of 2019. It comes ahead of an analyst site visit to Dubai where the Aoka Mizu floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel (which is contracted to the project) is dry-docked for upgrade works.
The UK offshore oil firm noted that the FPSO arrived in Dubai in September. Repair, upgrade and life extension works are being carried out on the FPSO, alongside fabrication work for an associated buoy that will be connected to the FPSO’s turret mooring system.
Royal Bank of Canada has upgraded its target price for Hurricane Energy, on Tuesday, with the broker’s new target of 70p suggests some 125% upside to Hurricane’s current price of around 31p.
Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:FOG, CVE: FO) also had some long awaited news. A draft report from the scientific inquiry into fracking in Australia’s Northern Territory looked like good news for the shale firm.
Falcon is sitting on a major shale discovery in the Beetaloo basin though its recent progress has been halted by a moratorium on fracking. A government-commissioned report is being produced in order to inform the government ahead of a decision to either allow or deny the controversial well stimulation technique.
The detailed final draft contains many points and recommendations, though the overall conclusion states the belief that “the challenges and risks associated with any onshore shale gas industry in the NT are manageable”.
SDX Energy Inc (LON:SDX, CVE:SDX) is advancing two wells in Morocco, and both had news.
On Monday, it confirmed a new gas discovery in the KSR-16 development well, its latest in the Sebou permit onshore Morocco. The well, which was drilled down to 1,896 metres, has encountered some 14.2 metres of net conventional natural gas pay in the Hoot formation.
It is expected that the well will be connected to nearby production infrastructure within the next 30 days.
By Friday, the company then announced that it had started production from the KSR-15 well and the well yielded a restricted average rate of 7.52mln cubic feet of gas per day during the testing phase.
Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (LON:COPL, CVE:XOP), via its 50% owned ShoreCan joint venture, has been awarded a new asset from the Mozambique authorities.
ShoreCan is to take control of Block PT5-B, spanning some 4,356 square kilometres on the Mozambique coastal plain. It surrounds the margins of the Pande Gas Field - which is one part of the Pande-Temane gas field which has 2.6 trillion cubic feet.
It is believed that ShoreCan’s new block is prospective for light oil and gas in the productive zones at Pande, Temane and Inhassoro as well as deeper horizons.
Following the award, the company has been invited to negotiate the terms of a production sharing contract during the first quarter of 2018. It is anticipated that ShoreCan will be asked to capture around 1,600 kilometres of new 2D seismic.
On Wednesday, Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC (LON:EOG) saw its shares push higher today after the firm said it has identified the potential for more than 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in its exploration area, in the Slyne basin, adjacent to Ireland’s Corrib field.