KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 16): Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd expects to start drilling its Sea Lion oil and gas (O&G) field within Australia's Bass Strait this Oct 25. Drilling is anticipated to take up to 30 days.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, Hibiscus said the O&G field could produce between eight and 15 million barrels of oil.
 
"The Sea Lion prospect is located 6km from the West Seahorse field. In the event of a commercial discovery at Sea Lion, there exists potential for an integrated
development with West Seahorse, thereby, materially reducing development and operating expenditure.

"The estimated prospective unrisked recoverable resources is between 8 and 15 million barrels of oil, with a good probability of success," Hibiscus said.

Hibiscus is undertaking the Sea Lion project via wholly-owned subsidiary Carnarvon Hibiscus Pty Ltd.

At Bursa Malaysia, Hibiscus shares settled flat at 64 sen at 12:30pm for a market value of RM627.7 million. The stock had fallen 25% this year, underperforming the KLCI's 3% decline.

Hibiscus is a loss-making entity, hence, no price-earnings valuation for the stock. In price-book value terms, Hibiscus' current share price compares with its latest reported book value of 55 sen a share.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)