A high-potential oil prospecting stock

A setback has weighed heavily on the shares of this oil explorer, says Paul Hill. But there's still plenty to play for in this oil-rich region of West Africa.

With investors as wary as they are, firms are being punished heavily for even minor disappointments. Take oil and gas explorer Afren. Two months ago, its shares dived on news that an exploratory well off the coast of Ghana had encountered water. Yet this accounts for just a tiny part of the group's reserves. There's still plenty to play for in this "very high potential basin".

Moreover, in April, chief executive Osman Shahenshah unveiled a "potentially transformational" oil discovery in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, in which Afren has a 20% interest. Results from a well operated by its US partner Hunt Oil pointed to "strong hydrocarbon shows" at a field that has previously been estimated to contain up to 917m barrels of recoverable oil (mmboe).

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.