Rant over, the draft of the Parer report on Australian energy reform was made public, raising as many questions as it had sought to clarify. The main being that it was divorced from a national strategic energy policy which would allow the operation of energy markets to be set in a proper context (according to APPEA, that is).

Internationally, the Indians are (optimistically) talking about running a pipeline through part of Bangladesh, with the aim of connecting a stranded Indian gas field with a decent market on the other side. No word if they've asked the Begalis though.

Emerging CBM hopeful Arrow Energy has secured more acreage, this time in the Styx Basin in Queensland while nearby, Mosaic are leading Santos back to Churchie-1 with their underbalanced nitrogen drilling approach. OCA have been tempted to do the same with their first serious conventional drilling program in over two years.

After the unsuccessful Morangie-1 well, Black Rock Petroleum has sold down its stake in Norwest Energy. Further up the coast, Argos was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole and Ceres-1 kicked off. The Bilip well in PNG seems to have encountered an encouraging interval for Santos, Oil Search Cue and partners.

The Investor Profile is on Eagle Bay Resources, and is taken from this month's issue of our sister publication, the ResourceStocks magazines.

On the LNG front, the NT Government has given all the necessary approvals for Phillips to build their Darwin-based LNG plant while the Korean Gas Corporation has agreed to buy some spot cargoes from the North West Shelf JV partners.

In New Zealand, more possible supply issues are emerging after rumours the Pohokura field may be smaller than originally thought two years ago and the sale of the Natural Gas Corporation's Stratford Power Station looks to be a shoot out between Genesis and Contact, which just posed a NZ$10 million profit.

Stunning mullets nearby has been Greymouth, whose prime contribution to NZ exploration to date has been to stimulate the industry's litigation sector. The lads are now proposing an infrastructure love-in for the Ngataro and Kaimiro oilfields. We're waiting for the laughter to subside before we seek comment from prospective partners, but we're keen to see at last a technical interest in the oilfield from Sturgess and the boys.