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In a boisterous energy market, one of our oil punts (Cooper Energy) copped an ASX “please explain” about the surge in its share price and another stock (iron ore starter Aztec Resources) sought a ­trading halt ahead of major capital ­­raising. Cooper ran to a year’s peak of 46.5¢, up from a low of 21¢ and then 38.5¢ following the company’s annual meeting on November 30. Directors responded that they were targeting more than 200 million barrels of new oil discoveries in 10 planned wells during the next six months.

The biggest play will be through ­Cooper’s recently acquired 45% share in the South Madura Production ­Sharing Contract (PSC) in East Java. Cooper paid $US1.5m to farm in and will pay 50% of an $US8.9m seismic and ­drilling ­program. The prospect has an assessed potential of as much as 199 ­million ­barrels of oil at one level and 256 billion cubic feet of gas at a shallower ­horizon. The first well will be in early 2006.

Cooper CEO Mike Scott also announced a further five exploration wells plus four development wells scheduled for its Cooper Basin tenements in the next six months. Farm-in partners will be paying a fair slice of the exploration wells. The first, Fairbridge 1 (Cooper 38.33%), is scheduled to spud before the end of the year on a structure with assessed potential for 3.7 million barrels. That will be followed immediately by another two wells with assessed potential reserves of 5.1 million barrels. Cooper’s cash reserves at the end of the September quarter stood at $24.75m after boosting sales for the quarter by 20% to $8.29m.