The market's renewed faith in Novus comes after the company and its partner, Canada's Heritage Oil Corp, recently reported a significant condensate and gas discovery off the coast of Oman.
Analysts suggest the Tibat-1 gas discovery, which flowed up to 11 million cubic feet of gas per day, could be worth between 9c and 58c per share to Novus - depending on the size of the reservoir and the price obtained for gas.
Heritage said the reservoir could be twice or three times larger than originally projected, which would be mean Novus would have a 40% interest in a 200 to 300 billion cubic feet reservoir.
Apart from the Arabian Gulf region, Novus will concentrate on the US and particularly Padre Island off the coast of western Texas this year. Despite mixed results from its Padre Island play last year, Novus is hoping for better results by drilling deeper and larger targets.
