HURRICANE Energy has begun initial drilling work on the Lincoln Well west of Shetland, declaring that the prospect could hold up to 250 million barrels of oil.

North Sea-focused Hurricane said the well will target a basement prospect geographically similar to its nearby Lancaster structure.

The spudding comes as Surrey-based Hurricane ceased drilling activities on its Lancaster field, which it believes may contain more than 200m barrels of oil.

Based on the results of pilot well drilling on Lancaster, Hurricane believes the Lincoln field could gave “unrisked prospective resources of up to approximately 250m barrels”.

With the Lincoln prospect located around nine kilometres from Lancaster, Hurricane noted that it could deliver significant incremental value via tie-back to a Lancaster development hub during future development.

Hurricane said last month that it will use the proceeds of a £70 million placing to fund production planning work on Lancaster. Shares closed up 4.35 per cent at 36p.