NORTH Sea-focused i3 Energy has raised £16 million from City investors as it plans to develop the Liberator oil find in the Moray Firth.

Chief executive Majid Shafiq said the funding would help Aberdeen-based i3 complete a drilling programme on the Liberator discovery and the Serenity prospect, which it reckons could contain more than 500m barrels in total. Aim market-listed i3 raised the funding through a placing at 37p per share which was over-subscribed.

The Liberator field was discovered in 2013 by Korean-owned Dana Petroleum, which sold it to i3 in 2016.