Tuesday 19th February 2008
Corac plans field trials
Compressor technology pioneer Corac Group expects field trials this year for its down-hole gas compressor after losing £2.4 million in 2007.
Turnover slipped by £204,000 to £1.4 million at the Uxbridge-based company, which has spent years developing a down-hole gas compressor to increase gas well yields by releasing ‘stranded gas’. Annual losses edged up £139,000 to £2.3 million, but AIM-quoted Corac ended the year with £5.2 million in the bank after a £4.7 million placing at 42p in early December.
Executive chairman Professor Gerry Musgrave says that represents ‘two or three years’ money’ and suggests ‘money is starting to come in’ anyway from other sources. He claims Corac’s other speciality, its industrial air compressor for ‘turbo boosting’ water screw compressors and ‘turbo charging’ plastic bottle blowing machines, is already achieving an18 per cent efficiency improvement in one commercial bottling plant.
According to Musgrave, the company’s development partners liked October’s test results for the down-hole compressors and that should pave the way for field trials in Argentina and Italy later this year. If successful, these trials could pave the way for commercialising Corac’s technology in this field.
There are other, far larger players in the industrial air business, such as US group Ingersoll Rand and Sweden’s Atlas Copco. But Musgrave insists its down-hole gas compressors have no competition.
Corac and its investors have had a hard row to hoe since its 105p float in 2001, though in the past three years there have been some stirrings. The shares fell to 25p in October 2005, but rebounded to 69.5p earlier this month.
Now 65p, down 0.25p this morning and valuing the company at £57.4 million, their further long-term recovery hinges on the field tests later this year.
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