Faroe Petroleum saw its shares soar more than 20% to 106p yesterday after it announced its first discovery in the Atlantic Margin.
The Aberdeen-based oil and gas company focusing mainly on exploration, appraisal and undeveloped field opportunities in the Atlantic Margin, the North Sea and Norway, said it had made a significant gas find in the Glenlivet exploration well, west of Shetland, with the well encountering a net gas column of 201 feet and excellent reservoir quality.
Faroe has 10% of the Glenlivet licence area operated by Danish group Dong, 80% interest, while partner First Oil Expro has 10%.
Faroe said immediate appraisal of the discovery was being considered with a decision on a potential sidetrack well expected in the next two days.
It said Glenlivet was close to the planned UK west-of-Shetland gas-gathering system and the find had the potential to become significant part of this, although it was too early to assess its commerciality.
Faroe added that the Glenlivet licence also contained another gas discovery, Laxford (Faroe 10%), and further potential exploration targets, all close to Glenlivet.
Faroe chief executive Graham Stewart said the strategically important exploration well had confirmed the presence of a significant accumulation of hydrocarbons in a high-quality reservoir.
The Glenlivet well is the first of a firm five-well Atlantic Margin exploration drilling programme in which Faroe is involved.
The second well in the programme, operated by OMV, is due to start drilling by the end of the month to test the Tornado oil prospect, close to BP’s producing Schiehallion field.
Three more high-impact exploration wells, on the Anne Marie oil prospect in the Faroe Islands (operated by Eni), the Cardhu oil prospect in the UK (operated by BP) and the Lagavulin oil prospect in the UK (operated by Chevron) will follow.
Australian company Roc Oil, which has interests in the UK North Sea, said yesterday it planned to cancel its listing on the Alternative Investment Market, in London, from November 2 and the last trading day for the shares would be October 30.
It said the costs associated with the listing outweighed any benefits it could gain.