Santos confirmed a big discovery at its Casino-1 well in the offshore Otway Basin. According to some pundits in the media, the gas column in the order of 47 metres was a "failure", which is far from the truth though it was short of what was hoped for by the partners.
Another energy player looking to emulate success in the Otway Basin is Woodside Petroleum. The Perth-based company this week said it will go ahead and look for South Australia's first offshore commercial gas discovery in an area north of Blackfellow Caves. Seismic work is due to begin next week. What are the odds of Woodside sticking with that name in these politically correct times, one wonders?
In New Zealand, Taranaki's complex geology has partners in the Huinga well puzzled and so they have decided to take time out over next few weeks to figure out what they are going to do. 28,000 barrels of lost circulation material does have the tendency to clog up wells.
The big news (late to hand) is that the New Plymouth police have raided the storage yard of the defaulting GEL Exploration, in an attempt to seize goods to pay GEL's debts.
The Fletcher Challenge acquisition added handsomely to Shell's bottom line in NZ and, in the same breath, the major took time out to tell Kiwis they can't rely solely on Maui to prevent widespread power shortages.
Staying in NZ, an environmental court has given National Gas Corporation the all clear to construct a second gas-fired power station, despite NGC saying it is getting out of the electricity generation business.
Coalbed methane hopeful Arrow Energy is looking to keep the markets interested in its stock by widening its focus from its core CBM business. The company has entered into an acreage swap with junior explorer Strike Oil NL, which will see Arrow give up some CBM acreage for Strikes's promising offshore WA Ceres-1 well.
And for those in the Sunshine state, Arrow is holding a information update outlining the company's exploration activities. It will be held at the Riverside Centre auditorium on Eagle Street on Monday night. Contact the company for details if you're interested in attending.
CBM producer Molopo Australia said its Mungi-4 well in Queensland has been completed and placed on production test with a second well to be put into production testing within a few weeks. Both wells will form part of feasibility study.
Another CBM player, Queensland Gas, has announced the first gas flows from one of its well at the Berwyndale South Pilot development.
In the markets, the Scots have finally succeeded in gaining control of marine technology outfit Nautronix. After some customary boardroom bloodletting, First Tech said it would begin a strategic review of the Fremantle-based company.
Beach Petroleum has announced its first dividend in nearly two decades and in the process kas made a full recovery the 1980s Independence Resources fraud scandal.
New Zealand Oil & Gas recorded a profit for the year despite writing-off big exploration losses relating to the Opito and Makino wells.
Budding geothermal outfit Geodynamics had a good debut on the Australian Stock Exchange, which was good news for one shareholder in particular, Bertus de Graaf, who made his name selling a good mine in the Solomon Islands just three months before strife erupted there.
Stockbroker DJ Carmichaels suggests that investors do themselves a favour and take a good look at Australian Worldwide Exploration with the oil and gas explorer/producer pushing ahead with plans for its Tui Project, offshore Taranaki.
In general news, the oil and gas lobby group, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association says taxes are harming this country's petroleum industry and they will meet in Perth next month to do something about it.
The state and federal governments have decided to do something about varying safety regimes in different jurisdictions in the offshore industry by setting up a single national offshore petroleum authority.
Another lobby group, the Australia Pipeline Industry Association, is having another go at the politicians and this time it has a Productivity Commission report to back up its case on the National Gas Access regime.
A Perth man with an audacious plan to solve Australia's salinity problem by using saline water to power a hydro-electric plant is also lobbying the state and federal governments - for $4 million in cash to fulfil his dream.
Internationally, 30 countries agreed at the 'Earth Summit' in South Africa to increase renewable energy's share of the global energy market while Australia indicated it may move from its hardline stance against the Kyoto Protocol thereby isolating the Americans.
Finally, with the Middle East in turmoil thanks to the Arab-Israeli conflict and problems over Iraq, global superpowers American and China are taking measures to protect their oil supplies. In America's case they will look increasingly to West Africa for their oil while the Chinese have decided to stockpile their oil.
