Victoria Oil and Gas shares rise on positive operations update in Cameroon

Victoria Oil and Gas shares rose Thursday after the company said it expects to complete the Phase-2 pipeline from the Logbaba gas field in Cameroon in the third quarter of this year.

The company also anticipates it will have 25 thermal gas customers connected by the year-end.

Funding of £23.4m was recently raised for the pipeline and to acquire the first 40 megawatts of power generation units.

The funds will also be used to provide rental, second-hand and new generation equipment in order to meet the 40 megawatts per 25 customer target.

First power installations are expected early in the third quarter of 2013.

Victoria identified a further 20 potential customers for thermal and power applications to increase the list of possible industrial customers to 80.

The production target from Logbaba by December is 12m standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d), comprising 6.5 mmscf/d thermal and 5.5 mmscf/d power.

The announcement came as Victoria widened its losses to $5.3m in the six months to November, from $2.3m.

New Chief Executive, John Scott, was appointed during the period to drive uplift of production levels and cash flow.

Shares climbed 2.01% to 1.52p at 14:39 Thursday.