UK OIL and gas company Hurricane Exploration said yesterday it had raised £20million through a share placing.
Most of the shares went to institutional investors, with the money to be used to re-enter the Whirlwind oil discovery west of Shetland.
Hurricane said a series of drill-stem tests would be done to further evaluate the reservoir and its fluid properties.
The firm also said AGR Petroleum Services was to undertake well-management services and contract a slot on the WilPhoenix rig for the operation this summer.
Hurricane is moving forward with projects west of Shetland. It has three basement-reservoir prospects in the area.
One of the trio is Lancaster, which was drilled in 2009 and has prospective resources of nearly 150million barrels of light oil. It was flow tested last year and has the potential to produce 15,000 barrels of oil a day.
Second prospect Whirlwind was drilled last year.
Hurricane said previously indications of oil had been observed, but operations had been curtailed by poor weather and the well was suspended for further testing and analysis.
Hurricane has said third prospect Typhoon is of a comparable size to the two others. It has yet to be drilled.
The company also has two other discoveries west of Shetland: Strathmore, which contains an estimated 213million barrels of “sticky” oil in place and Tempest, a heavy-oil find overlying Typhoon and containing an estimated 1billion barrels-plus.