Referenced Stocks

Energy Stocks in Front in Market Rally; ExxonMobil Expanding in Australian Methane Venutre

By Midnight Trader,  June 06, 2012, 01:27:40 PM EDT

Top Energy Stocks

XOM +2.15%

CVX +2.51%

COP +2.29%

SLB +2.27%

OXY +3.72%

Energy stocks are broadly higher with the NYSE Energy Sector Index rising 3.01% and the S&P Energy Index jumping 2.83% to lead all industry sectors in the S&P 500. Crude oil for July delivery is up 1.75% to $85.75 a barrel.

In company news, ExxonMobil ( XOM ) is setting up a joint venture with privately held Ignite Energy Resources to explore and potentially develop methane gas naturally occurring within more than 16 billion tons of brown coal close to the surface in the Gippsland Basin of Australia. Another 280 billion tons is contained in deeper seams.

XOM is taking an initial 10% interest in the venture, which plans to explore 3,800 square kilometers in the Australian state of Victoria over the next 12 to 18 months. Until now, XOM has largely stayed out of Australia's expanding seam-gas industry, which in many ways mirrors the shale-gas boom in the United States.

Australia has around 64 trillion cubic feet of gas trapped in coal seams, according to data cited by J.P.Morgan in a March report. XOM shares are up more than 2% today.

Also, Chevron ( CVX ) shares are up about 2.6% today with the oil and gas major saying its Gorgon LNG project in Western Australia is more than 40% complete and on course to start operations in 2014.




The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.


This article appears in: Investing, Commodities

Referenced Stocks: CVX, XOM



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