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North Sea oil explorer i3 Energy has made a major discovery 80 miles off Aberdeen.

The successful drilling of its Serenity well in the Moray Firth area has prompted the firm to reassess its nearby Liberator field, which yielded a disappointing result earlier this year. Shares in i3 shot up more than 60% as trading opened today.

Chief executive Majid Shafiq said: "The discovery of the Serenity oilfield, a potentially very large oil resource, is a transformational event for i3 Energy plc. We now have proven oil in a second structure on our licenses. It is the culmination of three years of detailed geological and reservoir analysis and validates our regional model for the Liberator and Serenity oilfields and neighboring structures.

"We will now integrate data from the 13/23c-10 (Serenity) well into our geological modelling as we develop an appraisal and development plan for Serenity, which we believe is connected to the undeveloped Tain oilfield.

"This result also adds confidence to our revised mapping of the Liberator field, which utilises the same reprocessed seismic dataset now used to map the Serenity field, and integrates data from the recently drilled 13/23c-9 Liberator well. We now look forward to returning to Liberator where we'll continue the necessary drilling operations to progress that field towards development."

London-based i3 said it It now expects to produce 63 million barrels in phase one and is targeting 396 million barrels in phase two at Liberator, and 197 million barrels from Serenity. It has agreed with Dolphin Drilling to extend the contract for its rigs until August 2023 and that the Borgland Dolphin semi-submersible rig is being sent back to the Liberator field to drill a new pilot hole.

Shares in i3 almost halved in September after a pilot well at Liberator failed to find a planned geological target. The firm has a 100% interest in Serenity.