Circle Oil Plc said on Wednesday production at its Amir field in Egypt nearly doubled in the third quarter and that it expected the sixth well in Morocco to have commercial gas, which was yet to be tested.

The company’s shares rose more than 6 percent to 32.25 pence in mornig trade on the London Stock Exchange. They pared some of their gains and were up 3.3 percent by 0813 GMT. Circle Oil said production from two wells in Al-Amir field rose to 4,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from 2,300 bopd. It also produced 500,000 barrels of 41 degrees API oil from NW Gemsa permit by mid-September.

The combined production from Moroccan gas wells, ONZ-6 and ONZ-4, was 2 million to 2.5 million standard cubic feet per day, it said.

For the six months ended June 30, the company reported revenue of $3.5 million compared with nil revenue last year.

Its pretax loss, however, widened to $15.9 million from $2.2 million a year ago as finance costs surged to $14.7 million from $1.3 million.

“Our daily production levels, particularly in Egypt, are building up and we are working hard to bring the next four gas wells in Morocco on-stream which should result in a healthy increase in revenues,” Chairman Thomas Anderson said in a statement.

(Reuters)