how fickle is the oil market?....

You would think given the numbers that Beach, Cooper and Stuart have been producing that there share would be going through the roof. But the fact is the drilling program in the Cooper/Eromanga is virtually at an end now and the thrill seekers are or have moved on.

Next attraction will be Carnarvon with its Hou Phai well having presumably spudded last weekend. A hit here and we could see a couple of days of good price activity. In OZ we then have Arc drilling Kingia after Eremia 2 the start of an interesting drilling program in the onshore Perth Basin that saw Arq up 10% today.

Then it is on to China after Christmas via Vermilion for Petsec. China should see some interest return to Horizon, maybe FAR and hopefully PSA. ROC just doesn't seem to excite anyone's interests and for the life of me I don't see why it has some grreat assets and is operator at Cliff Head and Beibu. It will come good eventually.

But getting back to the Cooper I think unfortunately the stocks involved are likely to go to sleep now until the next drilling program is put together and started. It has been a great year and some terrific results achieved by COE, STU and BPT.

Chances are all three will be appreciably higher this time next year, just don't expect too much in the next few months. That said I think BPT has one more iron in the fire for this year which spudded today?

Cheers