Today, Barclays (LON: BARC) have upgraded their investment rating on Hurricane Energy Plc (LON: HUR) after outperformance and growth. Additionally Barclays cut their target price for Hurricane from 75p to 55p.

Despite a challenging period for for European Energy firms, Barclays seem optimistic after 6 month trading figures were released by upgrading Hurricane to ‘overweight’.

Hurricane Energy Plc focus on on hydrocarbon resources in naturally occurring basement reservoirs boasting a market cap of £802.46 million.

Dr Robert Trice, Chief Executive of Hurricane commented “I am delighted to announce our half year results for 2019, Hurricane’s first financials to include revenue. The Lancaster Early Production System is the first phase of development of our significant Rona Ridge assets. Achieving first oil on schedule and on budget is a remarkable achievement and a huge credit to our operating team, our partners and contractors. Since first oil, Hurricane has sold over 1.6 million barrels of oil across four cargoes and Lancaster has been producing at an average of 14,100 barrels of oil per day. The operating cash flow that the EPS is delivering provides Hurricane with greater control of our future as we seek to deliver growth in reserves and production across all of our Rona Ridge assets. Whilst the financial security gained from production is crucial, the ultimate goal of the Lancaster Early Production System is to improve our understanding of the reservoir to aid planning of future phases of development of Hurricane’s significant Rona Ridge resource. Throughout the start-up phase and following first oil, the reservoir has performed at the higher end of expectations. However, we remain cognisant that it will take at least six months of steady state production before we are able to evaluate the validity of our reservoir model.

Barclays have also changed their outlook on this sector, as they changed the status from ‘neutral’ to ‘positive’ despite Brexit clouding the UK economic vision

Barclays predictions estimate that crude prices will continue to increase to around $60 per barrel.

As quoted in the 2019 Half year results published on Hurricane Energy Plc “The Group recognized revenue for the first time relating to a single cargo of crude oil that was sold in the period. This resulted in the Group recording an operating profit of $1.2 million (H1 2018: operating loss of $4.7 million)’

Hurricane’s shares dipped at the end of May due to disappointing results at the Warwick Well, however both traders and shareholders must be pleased with the first recognized revenue as outlined.

During trading on Friday, share prices increase by 2.6% which shows positive results, positive media image and potential for traders to leap on this change.

One additional benefit of Hurricane Energy Plc is that they do not rely on rising oil prices to support investment chances or increase its share price.

This presents a positive outlook for both Hurricane Energy Plc and shareholders as profits are set to rise.

In the energy sector there have also been updates to IGAS Energy PLC (LON: IGAS) and Cabot Energy PLC (LON: CAB).