The Senex Energy Ltd (ASX: SXY) share price has dropped 2.19% lower in early trade on Wednesday. This comes after the company announced the commencement of civil works for the Surat Basin drilling program.
What was the announcement?
Senex has begun civil works for its ~110 well drilling campaign in its Surat Basin natural gas development projects in Queensland, which comprises construction of well leads pads and access roads for the entire program across the Roma North and Project Atlas developments.
Senex awarded the contract for the initial well pads and access roads to a local Queensland supplier, T&W Earthmoving, and management announced the following in relation to Project Atlas and Roma North:
- Long lead items ordered for wellhead skids, well site generators and drilling and completion items
- Tenders received for drilling rig and well site services with contracts to be awarded shortly
- Drilling campaign to start in Q4 2019
- Roma North gas facility on-track with commissioning in mid-2019
- Project Atlas first gas production on-track for the end of 2019
What else has been happening for Senex?
The Senex share price has rocketed 30% higher so far this year to keep pace with the share prices of much larger peers including Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT).
Beach has been an outperformer on the ASX in 2019 and has soared more than 65% while the Santos share price has grown a tidy 35% as the S&P/ASX200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) has risen 20% year-to-date.
Senex currently boasts a market cap of $530.3 million at the time of writing and remains a solid growth option within the Oil and Gas sector compared to the higher yielding Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL).
While Oil and Gas can provide a solid defensive option in times of economic downturn, I'd put these top growth shares before Senex until there's more evidence of profitability and future growth in its full-year results.
