United Oil & Gas PLC, 88 Energy Ltd, Genel Energy PLC, Touchstone Exploration

() unveiled a significant upgrade to its independently assessed oil and gas reserves at the Abu Sennan concession, onshore Egypt.

According to a report by consultant Gaffney, Cline & Associates, the concession’s proved and probable (2P) reserves rose by 24% to 16.8mln barrels, from 13.5mln in early 2020, and gross proved (1P) reserves expanded 59% to 6.7mln.

The company highlighted significant additional growth opportunities with the consultant’s report pointing to some 21 exploration targets in the portfolio. The largest of these is estimated to contain 5mln barrels and is seen to have a 35% chance of success.

Earlier in the week, (LON:88E, ) reported evidence of oil in the Merlin well, in Alaska. Samples taken from sidewall cores showed fluorescence and ‘cut’ which are both indicators of oil. They were present in samples taken from several horizons.

The samples have now been sent for further analysis. “The sidewall core photos provide further evidence of the presence of oil over multiple horizons in the Merlin-1 well,” said Dave Wall, managing director. “Whilst these results are confirmatory of the cuttings data and were expected, it is reassuring to see.”

() confirmed its latest payments for oil sales in the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq. The payments totalled US$27.2mln and cover oil sales made in the month of February, and, includes some US$5.4mln of recovered receivables relating to sales in 2019 and 2020.

Additionally, the company told investors that its partner DNO, operator of Genel’s 25% owned Tawke PSC, has now stepped-up drilling of new wells at Peshkabir and workovers of existing wells at the Tawke field.

(LON:TXP, ) shares advanced more than 20% after the company told investors that flowback testing of the Cascadura Deep-1 well, in Trinidad, confirmed a ‘liquids rich’ discovery.

The company, which owns an 80% stake in the well, highlighted that it had perforated the top 199 feet of 449 feet of potential pay identified previously, and an average flowback rate of 4,262 barrels of oil equivalent per day was measured. That rate comprised 22.9mln cubic feet of natural gas and 449 barrels of natural gas liquids (NGL).

A peak rate was measured at 4,567 boepd during the testing. The well flowed a total of 48.8mln cubic feet of natural gas and 1,081 barrels of NGLs during the testing programme. Touchstone highlighted that field analysis has indicated liquids rich gas with no hydrogen sulfide and no produced water.

() inked a non-binding agreement with Eunisell Limited, a Nigerian owned oil and gas production solutions company, to potentially develop the Barracuda oil field in OML 141, in Nigeria.

Subject to due diligence, the parties envisage possible collaboration opportunities and Eunisell may provide vendor financing to achieve the scope of work that may be agreed.

Tlou Energy PLC (LON:TLOU, ASX:TOU, ) passed a major landmark in the development of the Lesedi gas-to-power project in Botswana by awarding contracts for the transmission line and substation.

The former has gone to Zismo Engineering, a local company, while the latter will be built by South Africa’s OptiPower. The update comes after the company raised £2.6mln from shareholders to help fund construction. The work also starts the countdown to the first sales of electricity.

Connection to the grid is a crucial part of the overall Lesedi project and requires the creation of a 100km, 66kV line suspended from wooden poles connecting substations at Lesedi and Serowe.