“Ah,” said he in search of energy, “the price of oil is rising, so I shall go in search of coal. That’s cheap.” Unfortunately, coal was never going to remain cheap in a seller’s market; bad news for many, good news for Energybuild Group. Yesterday shares in the owner of two deep mines in South Wales rose ¼p to 27p after it said that average selling prices in the six months to this June were expected to be 53 per cent higher than market expectations. It also said that production this year would be bigger than expected.

Now all things coal get a little complicated. Cambrian Mining, Energybuild’s largest shareholder, with 27.5 per cent, rose 22½p to 170½p. It is also benefiting from its holding in Western Canadian Coal (WCC), which soared 51½p to 268½p. It is thought that WCC will become a bid target for a big coalminer or steel producer as Morgan Stanley conducts a strategic review. ArcelorMittal, the steel giant, recently took a big stake in Coal of Africa, up 15p to 166½p, and agreed to buy much of its coal for its steel furnaces. Cambrian, meanwhile, is bidding for Coal International, up 3½p to 43p, which in turn holds 23 per cent of Energybuild.

Nautical Petroleum, the North Sea oil explorer, fell 0.05p to 9.2p despite Shincheon, of South Korea, revealing late on Friday that it had raised its stake to 6 per cent.

Salamander Energy fell 21½p to 310p after its key well on the edge of the Sinphuhorm field in Thailand came up dry. Oriel Securities pointed out that gas production from the centre of the field remained strong while it is achieving gas prices up 22 per cent over past year.

Regal Petroleum soared 39½p to 208p after Merrill Lynch began coverage with a 390p price target. The company said recently that it had received approaches from companies looking to buy into its Ukrainian oil-field, thought to include Lukoil, of Russia.

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