Baron Oil – formerly known as Gold Oil; renamed in July 2013 – is an independent Oil and Gas exploration and production company, incorporated and headquartered in the UK. The company is currently listed on the All Share segment of the London Stock Exchange’s AIM (Alternative Investment Market).

Baron Oil recently changed direction, moving away from the high-risk and highly capital-intensive deep-water exploration in order to concentrate on lower to medium-risk exploration prospects in areas which can be quickly, and relatively cheaply, developed and monetised.

Current projects include UK Offshore (North Sea), Peru and South East Asia with interests/stakes ranging from 8-15% (UK Offshore; Wick, Colter) to 25% (joint venture with Singapore’s SundaGas in SE Asia) to 100% (Peru offshore; El Barco).

Baron Oil (or Gold oil as it was at the time) was founded in April 2004 and first sold shares to the public (initial public offering – IPO) in July 2004 at the equivalent of 4.25p per share. This raised just over £400,000 for the company and valued the company at just over £10m. In just over 2 years the shares had climbed to a high of 17.8p, valuing the company at £42m.

The company last raised money in August 2014, selling 207m new shares (15% increase) at 1.45p/share, to raise £3m in funds for general working capital purposes, taking the total number of shares outstanding to 1.38bn. It also placed shares in July 2008, November 2006.

Oil and Gas exploration is an expensive business, especially when operating in deep-water environments which requires highly specialist equipment. Those involved in the sector are always on the look-out for new prospects, however, the whole model relies one being able to converting projects into cash, in order to be able to fund the next one. It’s all about finding the big one, before the money runs out.