The Bass Oil Ltd (ASX: BAS) share price has skyrocketed over the past two days, more than doubling in value and hitting a new 52-week high despite no news from the company.
The junior oil and gas company's share price hit an intraday peak of 23 cents today. That's 110% higher than its closing price of 11 cents on Wednesday.
The ASX energy share closed the session on Friday at 19 cents, up 18.75% for the day and 77% for the two days.
What's powering this ASX energy share into the stratosphere?
Yesterday's price rise was enough to catch the eye of ASX regulators, which issued a price query.
It noted that the ASX energy share's price had risen from 10.5 cents at the close on Wednesday to a high of 18.2 cents on Thursday. The ASX also noted a significant increase in the volume of shares traded.
Bass Oil responded today, noting "recent media coverage of the deep coal gas potential in the Company's 100% owned PEL 182 permit that was released to the ASX on 16 November 2022".
The permit is located in the Cooper Basin of South Australia, where Bass Oil owns a majority interest in eight permits.
Bass Oil explained that oil and gas behemoth Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) was exploring the same deep coal potential in an adjacent permit called Beanbush 3H.
That permit is present within Bass Oil's PEL 182 permit.
Yesterday, Santos commented on the progress with its permit in its fourth-quarter report:
The Beanbush 3H ST3 Deep Coal well was successfully side-tracked and a 600-metre horizontal lateral was drilled above the target coal formation. Eight stimulation stages were successfully executed.
The results from the well are being incorporated into Deep Coal appraisal plans.
What does this mean for Bass Oil?
Santos' success obviously bodes well for Bass Oil's prospects with its own permit in the same area.
In its November statement, Bass Oil said it had found "a significant prospective new gas resource … following an independent geological assessment". The assessor gave a best estimate of 21 TCF of gas and 845 million barrels of condensate/oil in place.
At the time, Bass Oil managing director Tino Guglielmo said:
At a time when the domestic gas market continues to face huge challenges meeting demand, this new potential gas resource represents a credible material contributer of gas to the domestic market.
The ASX energy share concluded its response to the ASX price query by saying it "continues to plan and develop its strategy to progress the commercialisation of the deep coal resource in the PEL 182 permit".
Bass Oil said it would provide updates to the market when appropriate.
What else is happening with Bass Oil?
The company released an operations update last week detailing a 30% increase in field production to 96 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in December at its sites in the Cooper Basin.
This followed the completion of a wireline program in November.
Total daily oil production averaged 366 bopd throughout December, up 2.5%. Sales reaped more than A$700,000 net.
Total production across its permits in December was 2,967 barrels, with 1,589 sold. The company achieved an average realised oil price of A$120.26 per barrel.
On its website, Bass Oil describes itself as "building towards a substantial onshore Australian and Indonesian oil & gas business with a clear focus on expanding production in the Cooper Basin and in South Sumatra".
The board and management of Bass Oil hold more than 10% of the ASX energy share's issued capital.
