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Russia-based oil explorer Imperial Energy (IEC) has posted a 227% increase in its Russian reserves, soaring to 372 million barrels of oil. This reflects a bridging of the gap between the reserves booked with the Russian authorities and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) approved reserves of 802.6 million barrels, announced after an independent audit last year by DeGolyer and MacNaughton.

That report had prompted the Russian natural resources minister to accuse the company of falsifying its figures and fueled fears about its ability to continue to work effectively in the country. These fears have since eased, although the stock took another tumble earlier this month after chairman Peter Levine cashed-in over £25 million worth of shares.

The firm’s operational update has helped to spark a recovery in the share price – and the company has said it hopes for Russian booked reserves to reach parity with the SPE figure by the end of the year.

Imperial Energy, which focuses its efforts on Western Siberia, also unveiled ambitious new production targets for the end of the decade. It has already achieved a 2007 target of 10,000 barrels a day and is planning to pump 60,000 barrels a day by the end of 2010 and 80,000 a year later.

House broker ABN Amro has reiterated its ‘buy’ recommendation, set a target price of £17.00 and says the update indicates a return to ‘normal working relations’ with the Ministry for Natural Resources.

At the other end of the scale Australian explorer ROC Oil (ROC:AIM) saw a 7.5% drop in its reserves last year after a cut in estimates on two blocks offshore China. At the same time there was significant compensation to be found in a 64% increase in revenue over the same period – hitting a record high of around £110 million on output of nearly 10,000 barrels of oil a day.