Oil Show Pushes B.H.P. To 1500c

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31498, 12 October 1967, Page 16

Oil Show Pushes B.H.P. To 1500c

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

MELBOURNE, October 11. Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd, shares soared to a record price of 1500 c on the Sydney and Melbourne stock exchanges today as news of an oil show in the new Dolphin well reached the market.

The shares at one stage gained 95c on yesterday's closing price of 1405 c. They closed at 1495 c, ex dividend, in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Broken Hill ProprietaryEsso jointly announced that the Glotnar II rig on the Dolphin A-l well, off Bass Strait encountered a show of hydrocarbons. Coring was begun at 4009 ft.

The statement said it was not possible to determine the composition of the hydrocarbons until further operations of coring, logging, and testing were carried out However, the news was the signal for action on the trading floor.

Brokers and operators milled around the B.H.P board shouting bids as prices began to soar. Surprisingly, the shares opened quietly when trading began this morning and sold back to 1395 before the announcement.

As news of the B.H.P. strike circulated around the city, broking offices received heavy orders to buy B.H P shares. Hundreds of sales were posted before noon as the shares climbed toward 1500.

Companies with shares in

B.H.P. had solid gains while industrials generally followed a firming trend. "We still don’t know how much oil is present in the Marlin field, br if it will prove commercially significant," Mr K L. Atwood, supervising engineer of Esso Standard Oil told the annual Australian Gas Association convention.

“There is oil present, but it occurs as a thin layer floating on top of the water,” Mr Atwood said. “The first well indicated commercial significance, but two subsequent wells have been much less encouraging. “We simply will have to await the drilling of more wells before the question can be answered.