Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) is locked on the 5% upper circuit at Rs.33.25, the moment it opened for trading. Over 1.80 lakh pending buy orders remain on the counter. Market cap stands at Rs.433 crore.

The stock is up, spiked up by the announcement made by the Oil Ministry on Friday, post market closing. The Ministry has given its nod for the commerciality of 'Dirok' hydrocarbon discovery in Block AAP-ON-94/1 located in Assam-Arakan basin with the mean Gas-Initially-In-Place (GIIP) of 254 BCF. Following this approval, HOEC, as the operator of the block, is preparing the Field Development Plan for Dirok Discovery with the objective to bring the First Gas to the market in an accelerated manner, subject to timely receipt of various regulatory approvals for the development/production phase. The company has a 26.88% stake in the development and production phase of Dirok Discovery and the other consortium partners are Oil India and Indian Oil Corporation.