United Oil and Gas has announced the placing of 31,250,000 new ordinary shares of £0.01 each in the capital of the company at a price of £0.04 per placing share.

The placing will raise £1.25m (€1.4m) which will be used to advance potential near-term acquisitions and farm-in opportunities, and also ensures that the company has a solid cash platform to move our company forward in 2018, a statement from United Oil and Gas said.

Applications are being made to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange for the placing shares, representing 13.46pc of the company’s enlarged issued share capital, to be admitted to the official list and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities.

Following the issue of the placing shares, which will rank equally with the existing ordinary shares in issue, the total number of ordinary shares in issue with voting rights in the company will be 232,185,001.

There are no shares held in treasury.

“This year has seen our company make significant developments, we added two more exciting licences to our portfolio, listed on the London Stock Exchange, completed two placings, enjoyed success in our first drilling campaign and delivered significant value for shareholders,” Brian Larkin, CEO of United Oil and Gas, said.

“We intend on continuing this momentum through 2018 and we look forward to updating shareholders.”

Last month the company announced that it had farmed into the Tullow Jamaica operated Walton-Morant licence located offshore Jamaica.

The agreement will see United have a 20pc equity interest in the Walton-Morant exploration licence.

Founded in 2016, United initially raised funding through private investment. This summer the company listed on the London stock market, raising £3m in the process.