Angus Energy NED sells £1.7mn stake

The Aim-traded company has embraced transparency, broadcasting each stage in drilling at its Lincolnshire gas project, Saltfleetby. Recent updates (with accompanying footage) include “running the whipstock into the well on five-inch heavyweight drill pipe using the pipe spinner and ‘iron roughneck’”. Of course, this will send most straight to Google, but it does emphasise how keen the company is to share its progress (a whipstock is used to drill at an angle, while an iron roughneck is used to separate parts of the drill pipe).

Outside this eager attitude, the company has a fairly standard approach: drill, test, hopefully reach commercial production. Saltfleetby hit first gas earlier this year, but the company has yet to announce sales or profit numbers.

Director Paul Forrest, the company’s largest shareholder with a 16 per cent stake following a deal to bring Saltfleetby into full Angus ownership, has used warrants received in that deal to cover “a number of cash commitments”, selling 76.5mn shares at 2.2p, for £1.7mn.

The trajectory of Angus’s share price is par for the course among Aim extractives companies – its shares spiked as investors became excited by its prospects in 2017/2018, hitting a market capitalisation of over £80mn. Project delays, disappointments and a weak market then meant its valuation dwindled in subsequent years.

But Angus is now trading at a market cap of over £50mn again – a turnaround from earlier in the year, when it put itself up for sale.

The difference has been made by the Saltfleetby deal and the production progress made there. Although the Lincolnshire site is its key operation, it retains other onshore UK assets – its Brockham field near Dorking is producing 50 barrels of oil per day (bopd), with a plan to increase this to 150bopd in early 2023.