The junior oil explorer, which has its head office right in the heart of Fremantle Docker’s territory, told the market of its “eagerly awaited” drilling program with the campaign “kicking off” with Moana-1, which is a “fantastic season opener” and the “main game” being in the southern permits of the Cooper Basin in South Australia. Phew!
The gloves were off across the Tasman with both Greymouth Petroleum and Indo-Pacific Energy slugging it out in the Wellington High Court. ‘Draconian and slanted’ were the terms used to describe the ‘distasteful’ attempt by Greymouth to overturn ‘industry custom and practice’ in the development of the Goldie well.
It was an interesting week on the North West Shelf. Early in the week, NWS partners said they were extending a conditional sales agreement with Methanex by 60 days to the end of May. Two weeks ago, the Canadian-based company shelved plans to build the world’s biggest methanol plant on the Burrup Peninsula due to cost blowouts caused by the rising value of the Australian dollar. Methanex has refused to confirm if it would be able to meet the deadline.
Nevertheless, while that sale is on the backburner, NWS operator Woodside said it is hoping for more sales from China due to rising gas demand from the rapidly-growing Guangdong Province.
It was a case of Turkish delight for Amity Oil shareholders this week as the share price rose 4.5% on the back of news that it has started gas deliveries to new industrial customers in the Velimese area in Turkey late last month, with another 14 more customers to be connected over the next five weeks. It also said that there was record gas production at the Gocerler Field.
Rural, energy and hardware group Wesfarmers, saw its share price plunge last Friday after a leading analyst from UBS Warburg downgraded the stock from a buy to a sell. The downgrade raised quite a few eyebrows in the market because its quite unusual for an institutional to recommend a “sell” on such a blue chip stock.
After entering into a financial arrangement with a third party, Nasdaq-listed and NZ-focussed Indo-Pacific Energy saw its cash reserves boosted by a $US1.1 million injection this week.
Scaffolding supplier PCH Group is maintaining its momentum in the international oil and gas industry after announcing a two-year renewal of its existing Unocal-Clough-Unithai alliance in Thailand.
Out in the moose pastures, the second Tap Oil-operated wildcat well, Crackling South, made a significant but non-commercial oil discovery in the Carnarvon Basin. Another Tap-operated wildcat well in the Carnarvon Basin, Banjo-1, was plugged and abandoned after finding no traces of hydrocarbons.
Tap will be hoping for a better result with Montgomery-1, a wildcat well in the Carnarvon Basin that Tap is partnering with Apache Oil (operator), Santos and Pan Pacific Petroleum.
Overseas, it seems that the US-led coalition is well on the way to removing Saddam Hussein from office in Iraq. The price of oil has tumbled to below the $US30 a barrel mark after the Iraqi “strongman” failed to appear on TV, instead, leaving it to one of his henchman to exalt Iraqis to sacrifice their lives for the regime.
On a brighter note, reports have emerged that South Korea has proposed gas to be piped from Russia to energy-starved North Korea in return for a verifiable end to its nuclear plans. Along with Iran and Iraq, North Korea is the other infamous member of George Bush’s “Axis of Evil”.
