Australis shares began trading at 25c and peaked at 26cps before easing to 25.5cps at close, giving it a market capitalisation of $85 million.

The Perth-based company is from the same team that sold Eagle Ford Shale player Aurora Oil & Gas to Canada's Baytex Energy for more than $2 billion two years ago.

Ian Lusted, Jon Stewart and Graham Dowland put together the new vehicle over the past 18 months, adding initial assets in Portugal's Lusitanian Basin and the core of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in Louisiana where it has 50% of a joint venture, and they are keen to continue the momentum knowing that those projects have a 2-5 year horizon.

It remains to be seen if lightning can strike twice.

In its earliest days Aurora was one of many juniors heading off to the US with big dreams and modest pots of cash, but unlike most, after a few false starts Aurora got lucky.

Initially it mucked around with projects such as the Flour Bluff gas field with Sun Resources in Texas, before teaming up with ARC Energy to drill the world class 5200m-deep Sugarloaf prospect, a robust four-way dip closure covering the same areal size as the large Moomba gas field in onshore South Australia.

However, the drilling targeting the thick sands of the Cretaceous age Hosston Formation was a duster, and the several trillion cubic feet of gas potential evaporated.

Fortunately for Aurora, while Sugarloaf was disappointing, the result came in the earliest days of success by others in the Eagle Ford Shale.

Aurora's technical team recognised the unconventional wave that was about to break and it was quick to get leases signed with locals.

Eventually, after the EFS code was cracked, Baytex came knocking and Aurora sold out in mid-2014.

Baytex closed its deal just in time for the oil price to tank and its shares plunged from $48/share to a mere $2 as the oil price headed south. These days Baytex is trading at $7.

Despite that, and some issues with its Canadian heavy oil projects, the Eagle Ford has been a saviour for Baytex, with production in excess of 41,100boepd, most of Baytex's 72,000boepd.

It is the same weakness that has hit companies like Baytex that Australis is hoping to leverage.

Companies have been left the TMS at a time when budgets have been slashed, so Australis has snuck back in, looking to use the Eagle Ford experience and replicate it over time.

Having already raised nearly $40 million in two private placements since December, Australis completed its IPO to $30 million and started trading yesterday.

Euroz Securities supported the IPO, and independent Australian fund manager Eley Griffiths has emerged as Australis's biggest institutional investor with about 8.17%, followed by WestOz Funds Management (6.3896%) and Kinetik Investment Partners (5.27%).

Management are also heavily in the mix, owning around 18.14%, although chairman Stewart owns 17.43%.

As Energy News revealed last month, Australis is aiming to swiftly bulk up its holdings with production or projects with shorter-term horizons than the US or Portugal.

Australis had risen almost 2% in early trade this morning to 26c.