Shares of Hurricane Energy soared more than 12% after it announced a “significant” oil find at the Lincoln Well west of Shetland.

Hurricane CEO Robert Trice said: “I am delighted that, at the end of an extraordinary year for Hurricane, the Lincoln Well has discovered a significant oil column outside structural closure on our Greater Lancaster Area acreage.

“Our initial assessment of the drilling results will be subject to refinement by analysis of wireline and sidewall core data, however, current analysis indicates that our pre-drill resource assessments — which were constrained by the oil down to in the Arco Well — of approximately 250 million barrels of recoverable oil for the Lincoln prospect may be conservative.

“I look forward to Hurricane’s imminent operations on the hugely important Halifax well and to simultaneously progressing towards the sanction of the Lancaster Early Production System in H1 2017.“