SHARE PUNT OF THE WEEK
WHAT IS IT? Empyrean Energy was set up to produce oil and gas in geopolitically stable environments. The firm’s two main drilling projects are in the US, but the firm has recently acquired interests in China and India.
WHAT’S THE LATEST? The firm’s news flow has been particularly relentless over the last few weeks, leading shares to more than double in value. On Thursday, the firm announced it had made a potentially significant gas discovery at its Mako South-1 well in offshore Indonesia. This came just days after it announced that it was raising £660,000 to put into gas projects in the Sacramento Basin, California. But in terms of share price movement, the most significant news was the appointment of geology veteran Gaz Bisht as a director earlier this month, which led shares to jump 59pc.
WHO BACKS IT? Newcomer Bisht owns a 8.1pc stake in the firm. The 54-year-old has spent the last decade working closely with the state-backed China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and has come on board to help develop the company’s burgeoning Chinese operations. It was Bisht who first introduced Empyrean to the Chinese market.
WHY SHOULD YOU INVEST? Oil companies are known for moving up and down, but the company’s recent rise has undeniably been remarkable and the firm currently shows no signs of stopping. Not only has it been posting regular developments at its more established US sites, but its less developed sites in China and Indonesia have been showing promise. Who knows where the firm could go from here?
. . . AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T Firstly, with shares already rising so much in such a short space of time, some may feel that the firm is due a fall – oil and gas firms are famously volatile in their junior stages. Last year, there were also signs of internal problems at the firm after two large shareholders launched a failed bid to oust independent non-executive chairman Patrick Cross.