AMU is hitting new highs - with trades up to 53 cents this...

AMU is hitting new highs - with trades up to 53 cents this morning and last sales at 51 - and doing so on significant volumes (1.6 million so far today).

This might reflect the market waking up to the fact that AMU’s actual current production is now running at an annual rate of over 330,000 barrels of oil. Or maybe that, based on the investor presentation on AMU’s website, forecast gross production over the next 12 months looks like hitting an annual rate of over 450,000 barrels of oil (with commensurately higher profits).

Or maybe it is the realisation that any of the three back to back deep gas plays about to kick off any day soon has the potential to be a company maker for AMU.

Or maybe it is the realisation that the price of WTI oil at around US$36 a barrel and looking like staying at healthy levels means lots of dosh for the company. Or even that the current high exchange rate is not for ever, and any move back to its historic trend will mean instant extra dollars.

Maybe it is the realisation that the hefty debt facility AMU can access via Wells Fargo Bank means that the management can make even more canny buys along the lines of past great buys like Red Creek, Morgans Bluff and Raccoon Bend.

Perhaps it is the market doing its sums and noting that AMU's current 1P and 2P reserves are worth on the open market more than US$80 million. And that Raccoon Bend might even double that! And their biodiesel assets could now reasonably be assumed to add another $50 million to that.

Maybe too it is the realisation that with the final hurdle of debt funding in place for the first biodiesel plant in Adelaide, this arm of the business is set to take off and deliver annual profits per plant of A$5 million to AMU. With 5 plants planned this has the potential to add seriously to the company's worth.

Perhaps it is the prospect of AMU qualifying for a few million dollars under the Commonwealth Government's alternative fuels capital grants program for their Adelaide biodiesel plant.

Or is another update from Shaw's been sent to its clients telling them all what a great little investment this company is?

Who knows - it might be all of the above.

(I hold so am biased).