Ambitious oil and gas seeker Ascent Resources has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with Hungarian resources company MOL to develop 'unexploited assets' in the country.

AIM-quoted Ascent, which recently raised £2.675 million at 4.55p (with warrants), has agreed that its 90 per cent-owned local joint venture company Petro Hungaria will provide funding to develop virgin oil and gas reserves, primarily through applying 'state-of-the-art stimulation techniques'. In return, Petro Hungaria will receive half of the incremental production resulting from this work, which has already been set in train.

Although the risk/reward balance might at first glance seem to favour MOL more, Jeremy Eng, managing director of London-based Ascent, hails this agreement as 'a major step forward for Petro Hungaria', adding 'another initiative is already under review. MOL is the market leader in Hungary, accounting for the majority of the nation's oil and gas production, refining capacity and reserves.'

Backed by RAB Capital, Bruce Rowan, Framlington and others, Ascent also has interests in Holland, Switzerland and in Italy, where Eng says he expects at least one out of eight recently acquired projects in the Po Valley to hold between 150 and 200 billion cubic feet of gas. At 6.75p, up 42 per cent since our mention on 11 August, the shares could go further.