Aspen Looking Good

Aspen (ASPN.ob) is looking good. Aspen Exploration hasn't faired well since the fall of the natural gas prices from their $12 Katrina induced highs down to the current $6 or $7 bucks that it's at now. At current prices natural gas is looking poised to rise. Of course natural gas prices are highly correlated to the weather. As T. Boone Pickens recently stated in an interview, "Tell me what the winter is going to do?" But I believe that natural gas should sell near the BTU content of oil and at current prices it sells at half the BTU content of oil. Natural gas is also a cleaner fuel than oil, though oil is nicely suited to transportation because of it's energy density. A hidden feature of ASPN is it's new Montana oil field buy-in that they purchased in January. They had not planned on reaping any significant profit from it for 2 years, but with oil prices significantly higher they will certainly have some positive effect that they did not expect. Also, they have hit some monster natural gas wells, and at higher percentage ownership levels. The stock price is unchanged at $3.15 today, but I am expecting good things this quarter an the next. Hopefully the Montana development can be speeded up with the extra cash coming in, but they are not the operators, so that may be possible.