"Russia's off the table, " said Craven.

Last week should have been good news for Craven, as the presence of gas at high pressure in the same geological band in two separate wells 40km apart offers further cause for optimism that Petroceltic is sitting on a find of 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the Algerian desert.

"We're well on the road to proving that in 2007, " said Craven.

Yet shares in Petroceltic, the third largest energy exploration company after Tullow and Dragon, tumbled midweek when some media reports misintepreted a press release sent out by Petroceltic and Sonotrach, the Algerian state company with a 25% interest in their joint venture.

The release referred to damage to the layers of sand around one of the test wells.

This was not actually bad news, explains Craven.

"It was a function of how we did the test well at the first site, " he said.

"There was more gas than we expected, and it rushed so quickly into the well that it collapsed the holes on the sides of the well that allow the gas to come through."

If Petroceltic's gas discovery is proven, the next step would be a joint venture with a major company to fully develop the find.

Petroceltic's immediate neighbours include Shell, BP, Total and Repsol.

Separately, a Davy research note by Job Langbroek and Caren Crowley released in late November argued that the value of small exploration companies is more directly related to energy prices than the larger oil and gas majors and supermajors.