LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Commercial gas production has started from Ascent Resources' well in Slovenia.
Chief executive Colin Hutchison said that Thursday marks the company's "official shift from explorer to producer" after a decade and almost €45m invested in the Slovenia gas project by Ascent and its partners.

The AIM-listed company said that the first sale of gas from the joint venture Pg=10 well was "significant milestone" and is the first step in phase one of the development plan.

Meanwhile, its second well Pg-11A is now moving to recompletion and will begin production later this month followed by the start of export sales.

Analysts at Northland Capital Partners said that fist gas extraction, the recompletion of eths second well and the upgrade of the captive power plant will allow Ascent to expand production and then upgrade the gas sold by dehydrating and treating it for sale under the contact with INA, a Croatian oil company.

The broker added that this will also result in the sale of a higher margin product by the end of June.

Shares in Ascent Resources were down 1.36% to 2.24p at 0928 BST.

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