Upgrades as Roxi doubles oil find

Roxi Petroleum has finally stopped drilling the Aryshagal 5 well at its flagship BNG asset in Kazakhstan, but not before doubling the oil bearing interval there. That's far more than the explorer could have hoped for when the well spudded in July last year, and it certainly bodes well for Roxi's other deeper plays at BNG.

Excitement had been building for weeks following a series of bullish announcements. Less than a fortnight ago, Roxi flagged a gross oil-bearing interval of at least 51 metres at Well A5. Now, it's at least 105 metres. And Roxi only stopped at a depth of 4,442 metres for safety reasons - different pressure and temperature conditions at lower depths.

"Once the well has been completed after running and setting 114 mm liner flow testing will commence," said the firm, which has a 58.4% interest in the BNG Contract Area that sits just 25 miles from Chevron's giant Tengiz oil field.

"The 105 metres gross interval is an excellent outcome," cheered chairman Clive Carver. "How far further the interval extends will be for another time to determine."

This latest update is "highly positive", says WH Ireland analyst Brendan D'Souza. "At 105 metres of gross pay, the A5 discovery is over three times what we had originally estimated the size of the oil bearing interval to be when the discovery was announced on 9 July."

"We upgrade our target price for Roxi to 28p/ share (+22% versus 23p prior) on the back of this thicker-than-expected oil bearing horizon and eagerly look forward to the results of the upcoming flow tests, which will further de-risk the deeper plays at BNG."

Roxi's next deep well, A6, is planned to allow targeting of levels below 4,437 metres.