LONDON (Alliance News) - Jersey Oil & Gas PLC on Thursday said it swung to a profit in 2017 in a year in which it made a "highly" exciting oil discovery in the UK North Sea.
Jersey reported a pretax profit of GBP726,692 for 2017 after a loss of GBP793,439 in 2016.
The company has no revenue, given it has no producing assets, and the 2017 profit was mainly due to a GBP2.4 million carried costs reimbursement related to Jersey Oil's P2170 licence.
During 2017 Jersey made an oil discovery at the Verbier sidetrack well 20/05b-13Z, which has estimated gross recoverable resources of up to 130 million barrels of oil equivalent and a minimum proven volume of 25 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Since the year's end it has agreed a work programme and budget which includes an appraisal well at Verbier, with work to start this summer.
Chief Executive Andrew Benitz said: "2017 has been a significant and exciting year for Jersey Oil & Gas and has been the culmination of years of hard work by the company. Our exploration drilling programme on our highly exciting Verbier prospect in October delivered a stand out discovery in the North Sea which we look forward to appraising this summer.
"Our successful fundraising in October has meant that the company is well funded for the upcoming work programme on the P2170 licence."
Shares were up 0.2% on Thursday at 208.50 pence each.
Jersey Oil&gas (JOG)