Pantheon Resources shares jump after project expansion

Shares in Pantheon Resources surged on Thursday after the Alaska-focused oil and gas group secured 66,240 acres of new leases across its Kodiak and Ahpun projects.

The company, which already owns 193,000 contiguous acres on Alaska's North Slope, paid an average of $31.83 per acre including fees, which equates to approximately $2.1m.

The leases will be officially awarded by the State of Alaska in four to six months' time and will come with a 10-year initial term. Pantheon will pay an annual rental of $10 per acre, and royalty rates of 16.67% (20 leases, 28,800 acres) and 12.5% (26 leases, 37,440 acres).

Pantheon has paid an initial deposit to the state equivalent to 20% of the bid costs with the remainder payable on official award along with the first-year rentals.

Pantheon's technical director, Bob Rosenthal, said: "This is an important result, securing what we expect to be the highest quality areas of the Kodiak and Ahpun Fields at the shallowest depths, and protecting the development schedules for Ahpun and Kodiak by covering the full fields to be included in our requests for development consents from the State of Alaska.

"Our focus remains on the development of Ahpun with FID planned by the end of 2025 and appraisal of the full potential of Kodiak to support its FID in 2028."

The stock was up nearly 11% at 19.24p by 0903 GMT.