It’s been a mostly cracking day for oil & gas companies.
Shares in Hurricane Energy (LON:HUR) surged as it successfully tested a horizontal appraisal well on the Lancaster discovery west of the Shetland Islands.
The flow rate was a far better than expected 9,800 barrels of 38 degree API crude a day with the flow rate constrained by the capacity of the surface test equipment.
Shares in Tangiers Petroleum (ASX:TPT; LON:TPET) also shot up after it said drilling has begun on the Galp Energia-operated TAO-1 exploration well offshore Morocco.
The Ralph Coffman jack-up rig will test up to three stacked targets: Assaka in the Upper Jurassic; the main target Trident in the Middle Jurassic and will move on to TMA if the well is deemed a success.
Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) has added another significant well in the Bone Springs play, in New Mexico, with the Jazzmaster 17 #3H well flowing at 650 barrels oil equivalent per day.
The well, on the Jazzmaster property, in Lea County, was drilled to a depth of 15,315 feet and was completed in the 2nd Bone Spring sand – one of several reservoir intervals in the play.
Not all oilers were having a good day, though.
Ophir Energy (LON:OPHR) has ended its Gabon drill programme in disappointment with the failure of the Okala-1 well.
Okala-1, in the offshore Mbeli block, was drilled to a depth of 4,229 metres to target ‘pre-salt’ Cretaceous sands, which were encountered as per the prognosis, but, there were no significant hydrocarbon shows in the targeted reservoirs.
Ahead of its annual general meeting (AGM) Gulfsands Petroleum (LON:GPX) said it remains committed to re-building value for shareholders.
The group has spent the past two and a half years without any revenue, since declaring force majeure in respect of its flagship Syrian assets, due to the conflict within Syria and the sanctions imposed on the country.
It has moved to acquire new onshore assets, in different regions, including Morocco and Colombia.
Over in the mining sector, EMED Mining (LON:EMED) has been awarded an €8.8mln EU grant for its Rio Tinto copper project in Spain.
The diamond drill rig is turning and work is underway on the Guamanga Copper Project in Chile, Herencia Resources (LON:HER) revealed Thursday.
In total the group’s joint-venture partner Oz Minerals, which is funding the exploration work, plans a 3,300 metre drilling programme over five holes to assess the potential of the this iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposit.
The first assay results are expected in the third quarter.
Premier African Metals (LON:PREM) expects to be in a strong cash position as the proceeds from the disposal of its Danakil potash project are paid. The company will now focus on its RHS tungsten project in Zimbabwe, while the viability of a pilot plant at its Zulu pegmatite deposit is also under study.
Premier African posted losses of US$4.77mln (US$2.1mln) in 2013.
Away from the resources sector, marketing specialist Porta Communications (LON:PTCM) said it remains on track to deliver positive underlying earnings (EBITDA) for the full year.
The firm said that after five months trading of the current year, fee income had grown by around 2.4 times to over £8 million and EBITDA, after all costs, had increased by some £1.6 million to approximately £0.8 million compared to the same period last year.
Natural insecticide firm TyraTech (LON:TYR) had a busy 2013 and expects to launch ten new products by the end of this year, which will increase product revenues.
In terms of the numbers, revenue for the 12 months decreased to US$1.4mln compared to US$3.6mln in 2012, mainly due to the absence of a collaborative revenue fee.
Operating expenses went down 17% to US$5.0 million (2012: US$6.0 million), while the net loss increased to US$4.9 million (2012: US$2.9 million).
Low–cost African airline fastJet (LON:FJET) doubled revenues in 2013. Turnover during the year rose 154% to US$53.4 mln, of which US$26 mln came from the core Tanzania operation. Since the year end, the group has re-financed with a £14.9mln placing while capacity has risen with total seats flown in May increasing 11% from April.
Oozi Cats, chief executive officer of machine-to-machine specialist Telit (LON:TCM) has topped up his stake in the company. His latest purchase, of 46,098 shares at 210p each, takes his holding up to 22.41mln shares, representing around 19.8% of the issued share capital.