Companies: AST    JKX   

Stockholm-quoted Tethys Oil, with interests in Denmark, Morocco, Turkey, France and Spain, is considering an AIM float soon.

Tethys, whose shares have trebled in a year to the equivalent of 260p, plans to drill an exploration well in the first half of this year at Karlebo in Denmark, where the company has 70 per cent of a prospect that managing director Magnus Nordin argues could hold 1,000 trillion cubic feet of gas. In June, drilling should start at Attila, where Tethys has 40 per cent, in the Seine Basin to the east of Paris, where Exxon first discovered gas.

Nordin says the company is looking for a new partner in Denmark, because of the potential size of the Karlebo gas deposit. AIM-quoted Ascent Resources is its partner and operator at 22.5 per cent-owned La Lora in Spain, which is already producing 150 barrels of oil a day, and its half-owned Valderredible, Basconcillos and Huermeces exploration licences.

Tethys says it sees big gas potential in Turkey, where it has ten per cent and can earn up to 45 per cent of the Ispandika project near the Iraqi frontier. The company also has 25 per cent of a project in Thrace (European Turkey), where fully listed JKX Oil & Gas also has 25 per cent.

A half share in the Bouanane licence in Morocco, near the Algerian border, completes the present picture. Nordin contemplates an AIM launch in a few months for Tethys, whose shares have recovered from the shock of a dry well a year ago.

This might accompany a fundraising of up to £10 million on the back of hoped-for good news from Morocco or the Middle East and could involve using an AIM shell. This is one to watch.