Texas the target of smear campaign

OIL exploration group Texas Oil & Gas is being targeted in a smear campaign apparently designed to undermine its share price.

A spokesman said it is considering alerting the Financial Services Authority after a series of attempts to spread misinformation about its business and investors.

The campaign has included an inaccurate claim that leading shareholder and former chairman David Parlons had sold his eight% stake.

A call was made to the Financial Times by someone claiming to be the company's finance director, asking the paper to remove Texas's name from its list of shares.

A spokesman for the group said: 'We also got a phone call from a man purporting to be from Barclays in Manchester - a Mr Kay - saying that our chairman had been arrested. That came just a week before a recent share placing.'

The claim was untrue and there was no Mr Kay at Barclays in Manchester.

Another fake call was made to the company's lawyers claiming to be from its registrars, saying that there was a problem with its register of shareholders.

Shares hit a high of 24 1/2p in June. At Friday's close they stood at 18 1/4p.