Hurricane Energy reaches farm-in agreement with Spirit Energy

British oil and gas company Hurricane Energy has seen Spirit Energy farm-in to half of its Lincoln and Warwick licences in the Greater Warwick Area.

The AIM-listed firm said the 50% GWA farm-in opened up a "significant new work programme" across its assets, widening strategic options and accelerating their potential monetisation by targeting reserve growth.

Hurricane and Spirit, which pledged up to $387m to the GWA project, committed to a work programme which envisages first oil by 2020 and a final investment decision on the development's first phase by 2021.

The pair hopes to unlock initial reserves of 500m barrels of oil from the project's current resources.

Hurricane's chief executive Dr Robert Trice, said: "We are delighted to be working with Spirit Energy. We share a common vision for the development of the Greater Warwick Area and more importantly a shared understanding of the potential of fractured basement in the UKCS. Their prior experience of basement in Norway and elsewhere underpins this understanding."

As of 1010 BST, Hurricane Energy shares had taken off 11.09% to 54.70p.