(Sharecast News) - UK Oil & Gas announced on Friday that its Pinarova-1 well had encountered oil shows within the target Eocene Hoya limestone sequence.

The AIM-traded firm said the shows were found in drill cuttings between 358 and 400 metres drilled depth, corresponding with observed drilling fluid losses, potentially indicating permeability development within the Hoya reservoir.

As a result, the company said it would conduct open-hole swabbed flow testing over the zone between 293 and 400 metres drilled depth.

Testing operations were set to take place over the weekend, with drilling continuing through the underlying zone, coinciding with the uppermost and strongest seismic amplitude anomaly observed within Pinarova's core.

UKOG previously announced on 11 January that the seismic anomaly could indicate the presence of moveable hydrocarbons, or good Hoya reservoir development, making it a key drilling and testing objective.

"Pinarova-1, located six kilometres north of the Basur-1 oil discovery, is designed to test a working hypothesis, supported by well and seismic data, that the active 41.7-degree API light oil seep found last summer in a seismic shot hole above the Pinarova structure, is directly fed by and connected to an underlying light oil accumulation of some nine square kilometres areal extent within the Hoya limestones, lying between 300 and 645 metres below surface," the UKOG board explained in its statement.

UKOG holds a 50% non-operated interest in Pinarova-1 and the surrounding 305 square kilometre Resan licence, which also includes the as-yet undeveloped Basur-1 light oil discovery.

At 1201 BST, shares in UK Oil & Gas were up 14.72% at 0.08p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.