A new oil discovery in the North Sea has boosted the shares of three companies involved in the project.

Premier Oil, up 84p to £12.66, said a well drilled at the Catcher block - to the east of an earlier discovery - had found "excellent quality oil bearing sandstones." The news has prompted Premier - which owns 35% of the licence - to raise its reserves estimate for the block from 25-50 million barrels to 50-80m barrels.

Separately EnCore Oil and Nautical Petroleum - which each own 15% of the licence - said the whole Catcher block could contain up to 300m barrels, although it was too soon to say the likely recovery rate.

EnCore has added 15p to 50.5p while Nautical is up 29.75p to 168.5p.

On Premier, analyst Richard Rose at Oriel Securities said: