Jupiter Energy

Jupiter Energy (JPRL) awaits imminent drilling results from Kazakhstan's Mangistau Basin, as it moots a £20m to £30m spring funding.

Steered by experienced Australian entrepreneur Geoff Gander and backed by Waterford Group (whose investment sucesses include Emerald Energy and Dana Petroleum) as well as Soyuzneftegaz (headed by Boris Yeltsin's erstwhile energy minister Yuri Shafranik), Jupiter wants to attract City institutions and accelerate drilling at Block 31 near the port of Aktau on the Caspian Sea, where trial production should start in a few weeks.

The company, which already boasts proven and prospective reserves and resources at Block 31 of some 170m barrels in this resource-rich area – with reserves of 24.2m barrels – is targeting potential production of 2,000 barrels of 'light, sweet, sulphur-free' oil a day by the end of this year, with a target of 4,000 barrels a day by 2015 from one field alone, Akkar East. Eventually established resources could be much larger.

With $5m cash at the end of 2011, Aussie-listed Jupiter, which came to AIM in November by introduction, is already selling some oil profitably at the wellhead at a local price of $42 a barrel, well below half its international price. The company hopes to reach full-scale production for export next year, says Gander, who points out that its projects have access to key infrastructure and stresses the positive attitude of the present Kazakhstan regime.

The shares, which have fallen from the equivalent of 60p last summer to 26.75p, are not without risk, but could reward a bold punt.