Down an unassuming street with the quaint cafes and shops sits a half-a-billion-pound company drilling major gas fields across North Africa and central Europe, writes Robert Sutton-Mattocks.

Sound Energy has become one of Kent’s biggest success stories with a market value of about £645 million.

Its shares are worth more than five times their value since January 2016.

The Sound Energy story begins back in 2005 with its float on the stock market, with a long term view to explore in Africa.

Its executive committee, led by chief executive James Parsons, inherited an onshore gas business in Indonesia and decided to focus a little closer to home. It now has major assets in Morocco and Italy.

Mr Parsons joined the company back in 2011 and moved the business to Pembroke Road in Sevenoaks in 2012.

“We’ve now built this fairly-well diversified European and African on-shore gas business, all hinged around the same bet which is that European gas prices are fundamentally strong.”

“We’re lucky enough to have two superb assets both of which could change our fortunes and if they both come in really the sky’s the limit...” - James Parsons, Sound Energy

After 12 years at Shell, five years as a director of Inter-Pipeline Europe and now five years at Sound Energy, Mr Parsons makes gas exploration sound easy.

He said: “You find the asset, buy the asset, permit the asset, which in Italy takes a long time but in Morocco is pretty quick.

“Work it up and then you have the drilling phase. It’s all about the result at the end of the drill.

“If it works, it really works and we’ve demonstrated that 2016 and our job now is to replicate that in 2017 and we’ve got the right assets.”

Gas exploration is an incredibly complex process with potential obstacles at every turn.

The permits at their Italian asset, Badile, took three and a half years to come through. Mr Parsons is looking forward to it finally coming to fruition.

He said: “Badile is our gem right up here close to Milan and is actually now six or seven weeks away from finally starting drilling.”

Sound Energy are planning for a March 1 spudding. Spudding is defined by oilfield services giant Schlumburger as “starting the well drilling process by removing rock, dirt and other sedimentary material with the drill bit”.

The drilling is expected to take about four months to drill the 4,600 metres. About double the distance of the upcoming Tendrara drill in Morocco.

It’s Morocco which really changed the firm’s fortunes.

Last summer Sound Energy added a second onshore gas business into the portfolio with a licence for the Tendrara field, close to the Algerian border.

The company took over the neglected wells and saw the potential for a far larger gas field than had been previously thought.

“There’s every reason to plug more assets in, either in Morocco or Italy or a third country, and I think we’re quite close to a third country..." - James Parsons, Sound Energy

Their well tests came back with very exciting results back in August and the share price jumped up in anticipation.

The real gamechanger will come as they finish drilling their TE-8 well, their third in the area.

This well will determine if the gas spreads to across a much larger area and determine whether Tendrara is a truly giant discovery with a highly commercial flow rate. The rigs are up and spudding started on Monday. Drilling is expected to last one month.

Sevenoaks’ latest success story is here to stay and growing. They’re even considering expanding their operations with new acquisitions.

Mr Parsons said: “We’re cashed up and we’ve got the right team.

“There’s every reason to plug more assets in, either in Morocco or Italy or a third country, and I think we’re quite close to a third country.

“I don’t think there will be a month without drilling this year.

“We’re lucky enough to have two superb assets both of which could change our fortunes and if they both come in really the sky’s the limit.”

Sound Energy made the move from Leatherhead five years ago and now have 16 people based in their two Sevenoaks offices.

After considering a move to central London, they decided being based in the suburbs was a better option.

Mr Parsons said: “Sevenoaks has a great train line so we spend three days a week on average in London, it’s just where the meetings are, the investors are, the brokers are.

“But this is great a place to come in the morning, clear the emails, get on a train if you need to and then come back at the end of the day.”

For other businesses facing the same choice, Parsons believe the financials make it an even more attractive option.

“Here we pay something like £60,000 for the office. In London, the equivalent number was £350,000.

“It’s a huge difference if you’ve got to generate the cash to fund that every year. We’ve been doing that for five years. That’s a big difference.”