Gulf Keystone Petroleum has significantly upgraded its gross oil-in-place volumes for the Shaikan discovery in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The firm has revised the value from there being a 90% certainty of 8bn barrels being produced to a 10% certainty of 13.4bn barrels being produced, with a mean value of 10.5bn barrels.
This upgrade of the Shaikan mean oil resources from 7.5bn to 10.5bn of barrels of gross oil-in-place is a result of the increase in the lowest known oil areas for each reservoir, the firm said.
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The upgrade marks the second very significant upgrade of the Shaikan resources estimates this year.
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"The latest estimates are an evidence of the progressive evolution of the understanding of the Shaikan field and of the increased certainty in the continuously improving resource estimates," the company said in a statement.
Gulf Keystone is the operator of the Shaikan block with a working interest of 75% and is partnered with Kalegran and Texas Keystone, which have working interests of 20% and 5% respectively.
John Gerstenlauer, Gulf Keystone's chief operating officer, said: "This third successive upgrade of the Shaikan gross oil-in-place range by Dynamic Global Advisors is a new step towards completing our understanding of this exceptional asset."
Westhouse Securities, the oil industry-focused broker, said "on an assumed recovery factor of 25% this would raise recoverable reserves of the discovery to 1.2 million to 2.0 billion barrels."
"The key issue is clearly whether the political situation between the Kurdistan regional government and the Iraqi central government will allow the crude to be exported," the broker added.
The share price rose 6.75% to 142.25p by 15:09.
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