i3 Energy prepares for mid-2020 appraisal programme

The group on Thursday said it was now preparing to delineate the fields, which it believed could contain a best-case scenario of more than 600m barrels of stock-tank oil initially in place.

In addition to the appraisal programme, i3 was simultaneously conducting a farm-down process of its licences to potentially fund the 2020 drilling campaign.

Chief executive Majid Shafiq said: "We are very excited about the further drilling operations we expect to conduct in 2020 and see this as the lowest risk path to unlocking substantial shareholder value.

"We believe our acreage, together with the data retrieved from our 2019 drilling campaign, will be very attractive to potential 'farminees' looking to add material barrels and near-term production to their portfolios."

As of 1000 GMT, i3 shares had picked up 2.86% to 12.60p.