Stellar Resources widens loss as Horse Hill development continues

Stellar Resources announced its interim results for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday, with an operating loss of £115,000 widening from £80,000 in the first half of last year.

The AIM-traded firm posted a net loss after tax of £156,000, compared to £121,000 year-on-year, with current assets - including cash of £753,000 - of £2.01m at period end, up from £1.37m.

Its board said it had a strong balance sheet with no debt at the end of June.

In February, the company announced it had raised £870,000 through the issue of 348 million new shares at a placing price of 0.25p each, with the funds to be used for general working capital purposes and to assist in seeking further investment opportunities.

“It has been a successful period for the company on the oil exploration front,” the board said.

“The company owns two natural resource assets in the UK, being a 10% stake in Horse Hill Developments Limited, and a 49% stake in Gold Mines of Wales Limited.

“We believe these investments will significantly enhance future shareholder value.”

Stellar said the planned testing at the Horse Hill-1 discovery in the Weald Basin onshore UK was undertaken in early 2016 with exceptionally high oil flow rates being achieved in both the Kimmeridge Limestone and the Portland Sandstone reservoirs.

“Flow results from the HH-1 well at Horse Hill produced significant stable oil dry oil flow rates from initial flow tests of 1,688 barrels of oil per day through restricted choke settings, which are thought to be the UK's highest flow rates for any onshore discovery.

“These confirm that a commercial discovery has been made and plans to develop the field will now proceed,” it explained.

Stellar explained that it was awaiting proposals from Horse Hill Developments Limited on the next phase of operations, but it sees “significant potential” for commercial development of both the Portland and Kimmeridge intervals.

“The HH-1 Portland Sandstone discovery is now estimated to contain 21 million barrels of oil initially in place.

“The discovery made in the Jurassic Kimmeridgian, Oxfordian and Liassic limestones and mudstones has been extensively studied and attributed with very significant resource potential in separate studies by Nutech and Schlumberger.”