Gas explorer Vintage Energy made it ASX debut on Monday at 23c — a 15 per cent premium to its 20c issue price.

But after hitting the local bourse at 11am AEST, the stock cooled to finish its first day at 21.5c.

About $473,000 worth of shares changed hands.

Vintage (ASX:VEN) raised $30 million by issuing 150 million shares at 20c per share to capitalise on a potential east coast gas shortage.

It’s buying a large landholding in the Galilee Basin in Queensland through a farm-in with Comet Ridge (ASX:COI).

The company is also in a joint venture with Rawson Oil and Gas (ASX:RAW) to drill the Nangwarry gas prospect in South Australia, and has a gas permit in the onshore Bonaparte Basin in the Northern Territory

Canterbury Resources launches IPO

Meanwhile copper and gold explorer Canterbury Resources is making its way to the ASX with the launch of an $7.8m initial public offering.

Canterbury Resources is aiming to make its debut on October 31 once it has completed its offer of 26 million shares at an issue price of 30c to raise the cash.

On listing the junior explorer will have a market cap of about $25.2 million.

Canterbury will use the cash to drill its prospects — including Ekoato, which is just 60km from the massive, world-class Wafi-Golpu project in Papua New Guinea.

The Ekoato prospect has not previously been drill tested and displays many characteristics comparable with Golpu, Canterbury said.

The company would know — several members of Canterbury’s exploration team, including managing director Grant Craighead and exploration manager Michael Erceg, had integral involvement in exploring the Wafi-Golpu complex, including drilling the discovery at Golpu.

Golpu now contains an estimated 10 million ounces of gold and 4.5 million tonnes of copper – and it already ranks alongside the highest-grade copper porphyry deposits in South East Asia.