Top 3 Best Performing Energy Stocks to Consider in 2021
Australian Shares add 0.23%. The ASX 200 finished Friday’s session 7.30 points higher at $7,396.50, boosted by miners and energy stocks. Still, the Australian index is falling 0.66% for the week as persistent inflation concerns continued to plague market participants both locally and abroad.
Among stocks, Crown Ltd (ASX: CWN) surged 16.78% after reports of a fresh takeover bid from United States private equity firm Blackstone for a total of $8.5 billion. Miners fared well as Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) added 0.67%, BHP gained 0.78% and while Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG) added 0.72%. Energy companies also traded higher, with Santos (ASX: STO) up 0.75%, Oil Search (ASX: OSH) gaining 0.96%, Woodside (ASX: WPL) lifting 0.5%, and Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) up 0.4%.
Financial stocks closed mixed, with NAB (ASX: NAB) down 0.73%, Westpac (ASX: WBC) adding 0.05% and ANZ (ASX: ANZ) falling 0.84%. Conversely, CBA (ASX: CBA) gained 0.58% after taking a stake in major New York-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Gemini.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 1.82%.
Get insights on our top list of ASX Energy Stocks.
Our List of Top ASX Energy Stocks
AXP Energy Limited (ASX: AXP)
AXP Energy is an independent oil and gas exploration company focusing on the Illinois Basin and other areas in the southern United States. Recently, AXP Energy announced a newly formed drilling division to advance an 8-well programme.
AXP has a major cost advantage by tapping its existing resources which will operate a leased drilling rig. Permits are pending on the first wells and drilling will commence in the coming weeks. Permitting is straightforward in the Illinois Basin.
The company has formed this division as a platform to substantially increase current oil production. It also adds to the gains being realised from ongoing workover programmes which will continue uninterrupted. It is anticipated that drilling new vertical wells will increase production much more rapidly as opposed to undertaking workovers alone.
AXP is planning an initial “4 + 4” well drilling programme. The first phase of which is likely to run for around three months. The company will then model a more extensive drilling development programme based on the results of the initial wells.
All targets are infill drilling locations and offset wells to existing producing wells. This means that AXP is drilling on proven oil-producing leases. AXP’s focus is to drill low-cost, high impact vertical wells.
At the time of writing, AXP shares are exchanging hands at 1.3 cents per share. Year to date, the energy company’s shares have gained more than 73%.
IPB Petroleum (ASX: IPB)
IPB Petroleum is an Australian oil and gas exploration company. The company is focused on the oil-prone southern margin of the Browse Basin Offshore North-western Australia. IPB holds an interest in three petroleum exploration permits WA-424-P, WA-471-P, and WA-485-P.
IPB’s aim has been to position itself to capitalise on the early stage “value creation” phases. The Company has built a small and capable management team experienced in exploration, appraisal and development of oil and gas fields, which when supplemented by its close group of external consultants to execute this strategy.
The year-to-date performance of IPB might not look impressive as the company’s share price melted by more than 50%. However, today at closing, IPB shares surged by an impressive 21.4% to 1.7 cents apiece. This brought the company’s share prices last three months performance to 6.25%. Technically, IPB price action is on the verge to form a double bottom which could be the sign of a bullish reversal.
AustChina Holdings Limited (ASX: AUH)
AustChina Holdings or AUH is an Australia-based company operating as a natural resource’s investment company. AUH invests in the energy sector oil and gas projects, coal, and biogas utilities specialising in the delivery of process plants for both solid organic wastes and wastewater. The company serves its customers in Australia and Asia.
AustChina has a JORC compliant inferred thermal coal resource of 1.3 billion tonnes at its Blackall Coal Project in the Eromanga Basin which includes 30 million tonnes of indicated coal resource. Over 800 Mt of the overall 1.3 billion tonnes coal resource are estimated to be less than 50 metres in depth.
AUH continues to investigate alternative strategies for the use of coal from the Blackall Project in site-based processes. On the 15th of October 2021, AustChina announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Fortress Capital. AustChina is working through a due diligence process to evaluate the applicability of the technology to its portfolio. Exploration expenditure of $69 thousand during the quarter continued consideration of mining method alternatives and strategies for coal utilisation for the Blackall resource.
At the time of writing, AUH is trading at 0.9 cents per share.
