Ithaca goes into Hurricane

Shares in Ithaca Energy rose on Monday morning after the firm said it had started drilling its Hurricane appraisal well in the North Sea.

The well programme in the in Block 29/10b of the company's Greater Stella Area is expected to take between 75 to 85 days to complete.

The drilling mission has three purposes:

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- confirming the nature and volume of recoverable hydrocarbons

- calibrating the hydrocarbon contact with seismic amplitude

- verifying the distribution, quality and connectivity of the reservoir

The company's independent reserves evaluator, Sproule International, has assigned net proved and probable reserves of 2.7m barrels of oil equivalent to Hurricane.

Ithaca said that once the appraisal drilling was complete, the wellbore would be suspended for future re-entry and completion as a production well.

The firm's shares rose almost 5% on the news.