TomCo Energy

Watch out for developments at US oil shale play TomCo (TOM), which has appointed mining financier and former Zambezi Nickel boss Paul Rankine to its board.

Steered by veteran small company player Stephen Komlosy, the AIM-quoted company intends to produce oil from its Holliday block in Utah, with a currently estimated resource of 123 million barrels, using a relatively environmentally friendly process, 'EcoShale', developed by its US partner, the private Red Leaf Resources Inc.

Rankine, a South African with experience of the Oppenheimer mining empire, JP Morgan and Citigroup, as well as being an erstwhile director of AIM-quoted Stellar Diamonds, is a board member of investment concern Altima Partners, which backed another AIM group London Mining's founder Chris Brown and whose partners own 17 per cent of TomCo. Bulls argue that he could play an important role in having Holliday taken into production.

Shares in TomCo, a former Israeli oil play which quit AIM when its prospects there became mired in controversy, returned to the market last month with its new US prospects and a £3 million placing at 1p. The shares now trade at 0.98p, but could handsomely repay a punt on potential progress in Utah.