Helium One Global Ltd on Wednesday said its full-year loss narrowed, and reported that it will begin a downhole sampling programme after overcoming difficulties at Tai-3 well in Tanzania.

Shares in Helium One rose 7.3% to 5.42 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

The London-based helium explorer focused on Tanzania said in the financial year ended June 30, pretax loss narrowed to $3.3 million from $13.4 million from a year prior, as impairments fell to $597,698 from $8.7 million the year before.

Helium One did not report any revenue again as its operations remained focused on commercial discovery.

The company’s cash balance at June 30 grew 96% to $9.6 million from $4.9 million a year ago.

Chair James Smith said: ‘The year under review has been dominated by obtaining a rig for the Company’s Phase 2 drilling programme... The year ahead promises to be an exciting one. We are fully funded for our ongoing drilling campaign at Tai, the results of which will soon be published, and are funded for the follow-up well at Itumbula.’

On Wednesday Helium One also announced that it successfully pulled the drill string out of a hole at the Tai-3 well at its Rukwa prokect, and now plans to start a downhole sampling programme to obtain gas samples from identified zones. If the sampling is successful, Helium One have the capability to transfer and evaluate these samples at the well site using field pressure-volume-temperature analysis in order to determine the gas composition,‘ it said.

This comes after Helium One reported last week that the Tai-3 well had reached its total depth of 1,448 metres, and had encountered a weathered crystalline basement, noting that drilling would take place over the weekend following repairs to the iron rough neck which was damaged early this month.

Chief Executive Officer Lorna Blaisse commented: ’This past year has been an incredibly busy time for the company, delivering the rig and commencing drilling at Tai-3. Despite the hurdles that we have had to overcome, Helium One remains resilient, and we continue to deliver on our promises and strategy.‘

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