Coastal Energy reserves boosted

Coastal Energy rose five per cent on Wednesday morning after an evaluation of its onshore and offshore reserves in Thailand returned positive results.

An independent interim report concluded:

- Offshore proved reserves increased by 30% to 81m barrels of oil (mmbbl)

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- Offshore proved plus probable reserves increased by 60% to 127.7 mmbbl

- Total company proved reserves increased by 26% to 87.9m barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe)

- Total company proved plus probable reserves increased by 45% to 149.1 mmboe

Randy Bartley, President and CEO, said the firm was extremely pleased with the results, with its offshore Bua Ban North site continuing to surprise to the upside.

"The core analysis gave us a lot of valuable information about the reservoir and helped us to better formulate our field wide development plan," he said.

"We are looking to contract a second rig so we can execute the Bua Ban North development while continuing our exploration program and expansion into Malaysia."

The company said two horizontal development wells and two water injection wells had been drilled at Bua Ban North, which would help to bring production from Bua Ban North back up to higher levels.