Monday 08 August 2016 2:18 pm

This little-known oil and gas explorer’s market cap has nearly trebled recently

While Sound Energy's market cap has nearly trebled recently, the cherry on investors' cake came today.

The Aim-listed oil and gas explorer confirmed that it made a "significant" discovery at a well in Morocco. It's flowing at a rate of 17.5m standard cubic feet per day which was "significantly above expectations".

Sound will now turn its attention to a second well in the licence area, and a third is in the pipeline for later this year.

Its shares closed up 6.11 per cent to 63.40p per share yesterday afternoon, having ballooned more than 250 per cent since the start of July when it started to tantalise markets with the find.

James Parsons, chief executive officer of Sound Energy, said: "I believe Tendrara, Meridja and the Eastern Morocco Tagi play have the potential to be a material hydrocarbon province on a regional scale and therefore to transform both Sound Energy and the Moroccan gas industry."

"We shall now, together with Schlumberger, proceed with the second well, and a further outpost well, which will provide further insight on the long-term potential," he added.

Broker Cantor Fitzgerald markedly increased its target price for Sound Energy shares today, to 101p from 40p.

"Prior to these results, Sound had stated that the field could hold as much as five to 10 trillion cubic feet of gas — a significant accumulation."

"Given today's update, we believe the Tendrara field could hold as much as 25 trillion cubic feet — potentially placing the [larger] field … well within 'supergiant' territory."