Canada's Caspian floats in London

A CANADIAN company with a stake in an onshore oil project in Kazakhstan is to become the latest in a long line of explorers floating on the London market.

Caspian Energy will begin a roadshow with institutions next week and hopes to gain a secondary listing of around £75m on Aim next month. It plans to raise £12m through the float, which will be managed by broker Canaccord.

Caspian is merging with Canadian miner Northway and the new board will include Charles Summers, former UK operations manager of energy giant Kerr-McGee.

Its decision to list comes as a host of small explorers take advantage of sky-high oil prices and the exploration buzz sparked by Cairn Energy to tap City institutions for funds.

Toronto-based Nelson Resources listed on Aim last month with a market value of almost £500m and became one of the largest independent companies in London.

The Caspian region's reserves account for 5% of the world's total but remain largely undeveloped. Caspian recently took a 50% interest in the North Block, an exploration zone next to Nelson's 360-m-barrel Alibekmola field.

One insider said: 'Caspian is basically at the stage where Nelson was three years ago, and if you'd have got into Nelson then you'd have done very well.'