The North West Shelf operator scored another good contract win by signing up a new customer - Japan's Shizuoka Gas. The contract is for 24 years, peaking at 135,000 tonnes with first deliveries to begin in 2005.

That was the good news. Now for the bad news. In the same breath, Woodside announced fourth-quarter results that showed falling sales, production and profits. As you would expect, the market did not like what it heard and correspondingly, marked the stock down.

In response, Woodside boss John Akehurst told staff to prepare for job losses as the organisation embarks on wide-ranging cuts and internal restructuring to improve the company's performance. To underscore his determination, Mr Akehurst said there would be "no sacred cows" in his performance enhancement program.

While it was a mixed week for Woodside, it was a great week for the WA government and its plans to add value to the State's gas resources. Early in the week, the Gallop Government signed a crucial Native Title agreement that should pave the way for the expansion of gas processing projects on the Burrup.

In more good news for the government, the proponent of a $500 million methanol plant slated for the Burrup told the market that financing for the project should be in place by next month., It was no wonder that an Access Economics forecast WA's economy experiencing a gas-led boom and growing at twice the national average.

In the moose pastures, partners in the Cliff Head-3 well said test strings are currently being run with flow testing of the appraisal well scheduled for the weekend. Voyager Energy has sold its stakes in the Canning Basin to concentrate on its Perth Basin assets, including the Cliff Head discovery. Meanwhile, Sunshine Gas is hoping for exploration success in Queensland to help stimulate market interest in the junior explorer. Sunshine said it should be hitting the target zone of the Overston-1 well in the next day or so.

In other drilling news, Novus is riding high thanks to a big gas and condensate discovery in the Middle East. During the week, the Sydney-based company also took time to dispose of some minor Indonesia assets.

Amadeus Energy kicked off its three well drilling program in the interestingly named Pitchfork Prospect in Texas. Amity Oil shares spiked during the week after spudding two more Gocerler gas wells in Turkey. Meanwhile, in the PNG, Horizon Energy and Oil Search announced an equity swap deal.

Thanks to the Iraqi standoff, the oil price has soared to a two-year high. Currently, its is trading at about $US33 a barrel. However, it did hit $US35 bbl earlier in the week and prompted some commentators in Australia to predict that Aussie consumers would soon pay $1.10 a litre for petrol.

Maybe Australia can look to the Old Dart and its policy of securing energy supply through renewable energy to help avoid steep oil prices. Britain is looking to generate at least 10% of its power needs by renewable energy by 2010.

Or maybe Australia could focus on nuclear power like our Japanese friends. Then again, maybe not. Japan's nuclear sector is in crisis thanks to a closure of 17 plants on safety grounds. The Japanese have told their customers (politely, of course) to reduce their demand to cover a massive shortfall of electricity generation.

The sad story of the week continues to be Venezuela. Despite a peace proposal by former US President Jimmy Carter, the country is sinking further into the morass as the strikes there enters its seventh week.

Maybe these people can take a leaf out of Australia's book. Australia uses its political stability as a bargaining chip in negotiations with potential customers and as a result makes a pretty good living out of delivering energy supplies on a reliable basis.

Despite its enormous resources and energy of its people, Venezuela uses madness as a bargaining chip to drive customers away and in the process, its hard pressed people sink deeper into poverty. Hopefully, this crisis will be resolved soon.