Falcon Oil and Gas Ltd.

The significant new shale discovery was confirmed in October, but a moratorium on fracking means Falcon and its partners are playing a waiting game.

With the filing of its interim statement Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:FOG) highlighted that its partner Origin Energy intends to meet with the Northern Territory authorities soon to discuss a revised timetable for its shale gas venture.

It comes amid a moratorium on fracking, put in place following the recent Australian election.

As a new government sponsored assessment of fracking takes place the joint venture - between Falcon, Origin and Sasol – is confined to desktop analysis and evaluation work.

After a successful start to what was supposed to be a nine-well drill programme Origin in October issued an official notification of discovery.

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A new resource evaluation report is currently being worked on to further detail the size and scope of the discovery and the potential of its surrounding areas.

Separately, Falcon also highlighted that the government process is ongoing in South Africa, where it is expected that exploration licences will be issued in 2017.

In terms of financials Falcon pointed to its strong positions. It says it had US$10.6mln of cash at the end of September and it was debt free.

The company told investors it continues to focus on strict cost management, and efficient control of its portfolio. General and admin costs were reduced by 13% in the first half of the year, down to US$1.6mln.