While most energy firms struggled today following a slump in oil prices in the US on Friday, Cooper Energy soared as much as 80% to an all time high of $1.295 after it said it had discovered a new oil field in the Cooper Basin. In addition, oil shows have been detected at its Indonesian well.
Stock in the oil and gas explorer and producer, traded in a range between 0.90 – 1.295 cents, whilst close to 20 million shares changed hands – a significant increase on the daily average of 650,000.
This means about 8% of the float was traded throughout the day, with a total 252.26 million shares on issue.
The Perth-based Cooper Energy said oil shows have been recorded in its Kurnia-1 well, located on the island of Java, Indonesia.
It is very early days for this potentially large offshore find.
Oil shows were detected in the drill cuttings and free oil in the drilling mud. A significant amount of testing still needs to be done to see whether the oil flows and whether the discovery is commercial.
Cooper Energy said production test will start this week.
On the home front, an oil discovery has been made at the Parsons-1 well, located in the oil producing fields of Cooper Basin in South Australia.
The well flowed at 3,362 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) over the weekend through a 2 inch line, confirming its potential as a significant new producer.
It is to boost oil production by over 800 barrels of oil per day from March 2008, when production is expected to start.
"The log evaluation shows that there is approximately 10 metres of good quality net reservoir and the clean-up production rate of 3,362 barrels per day again demonstrates the high productivity of the Namur Sandstone Formation within PEL92," managing director Michael Scott said.
Share in Cooper Energy closed up 59% at $1.155.
Most energy firms fell as the oil price hit a one month low of $89 on Friday, with Woodside Petroleum (WPL) falling 47 cents to $48.02, Santos (STO) dropped 39 cents to $13.91, and Oil Search (OSL) fell 11 cents to $4.53.
