Oil and gas producer Beach Energy has announced a $345 million capital raising to fund future exploration and growth.

The raising includes an underwritten one for eight pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, at $1.40 a share, to raise $195 million.

It also aims to raise $150 million in senior, unsecured convertible notes.

Beach recently posted a first half profit and entered the benchmark S&P/ASX 100 for the first time on the back of success with shale gas and the acquisition of Adelaide Energy.

The company’s managing director Reg Nelson said that in order to underpin the next phase of the company’s growth, it required a level of capital to ensure it was self-funded.

“Beach is entering a new and exciting development and exploration phase, which we believe has the potential to transform not only Beach, but also the Cooper Basin and the east coast gas market for years to come,” he said in a statement.

The company indicated in an investor presentation released on Tuesday that it would spend $650 million on capital expenditure by the end of the 2012-13 financial year.

That includes work on conventional and unconventional gas in the Cooper Basin in South Australia, and development and exploration of oil assets in Egypt and Tanzania.

Currently its oil and gas production comes from the Cooper Basin in South Australia’s northeast, and the Eromanga Basin in southwest Queensland.

Shares in Beach Energy have have shot up by 66 per cent from 95 cents 12 months ago and closed at $1.575 on Monday before the capital raising was announced.