ATP Rises on Additional Data From Israeli Project

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (ATPG) rose the most in four weeks after a partner reported flow tests from an Israeli natural-gas discovery announced earlier this month.

ATP, based in Houston, rose 7.9 percent to $1.51 at the close in New York, the biggest gain since July 2. The shares have fallen 79 percent this year.

The Shimshon well off the coast of Israel was flowing at a rate of 40.2 million cubic feet a day at the end of a 54-hour test, Isramco Negev 2 LP (ISRAL), which has a 39 percent stake, said today in a statement. ATP is the well operator with a 40 percent interest. Isramco reported July 1 the field may hold 2.3 trillion cubic feet of gas.

“The company and its investors would be grasping on any good news,” Oliver Corlett, a New York-based analyst for R.W. Pressprich & Co. said today in a telephone interview. It remains unclear whether the test is consistent with the company’s estimate of the field’s size, he said.

Corlett rates ATP shares at market perform, the equivalent of a hold, and doesn’t own any.

The shares fell 28 percent to $1.40 on July 27, after Bloomberg News reported that bondholders are organizing in anticipation of a potential bankruptcy, citing two people familiar with the matter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net; Sharon Wrobel in Tel Aviv at swrobel4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net