i3 Energy PLC (LON:I3E) shares flowed higher on Friday as the firm spudded a new well at its Liberator field in the North Sea.
The oiler said the Liberator A2 well had been successfully spudded and the results from the drilling will be used to optimise the location and trajectory of the planned LP-02 production well.
WATCH: i3 Energy team discuss ‘transformational’ discovery at Serenity
i3 added that its successful Serenity 13/23-c 10 well had been plugged and abandoned as planned with all expected samples and data retrieved.
Additionally, the company has agreed to issue £5mln in equity to funders of its May 2019 junior loan notes through a private placement at 35p per share, a 0.6% premium to its Thursday closing price, to provide “additional flexibility” to extend its drilling programme.
"We are excited to be drilling again at Liberator on the back of our success at Serenity. The A2 location has been selected as a low-risk target in close proximity to Liberator's two well penetrations, giving us a high level of confidence when tied into the recently reprocessed seismic that was used to select the Serenity discovery well location”, i3’s chief executive Majid Shafiq said in a statement.
He added that the additional funds from its loan noteholders “shows a great level of confidence in i3's assets and management team”.
In early trading, i3’s shares were 2% higher at 35.5p.