The Feds increased funds to Geoscience Australia but said they plan to drop any subsidies on LPG, biodiesels and other transport fuels. Ethanol escaped such attention however. The decision to drop any subsidised incentives on a clean diesel replacement such as biodiesel, is one more example of how this country has got its energy policy seriously twisted.

The first tangible sign of non-Train 4 activity on the Burrup was seen this week when work on the Burrup Fertilizers water pipeline commenced. Reassuring news just as people were starting to wonder about the so-called wave of development for the Burrup.

Looking internationally and the Chinese have been frozen out of the North Caspian Sea project after being pre-empted by the usual major suspects, or is that suspect majors? Lukoil might be up for a US$250 million tax bill from the Azeri Government after selling its 10% in the Azerbaijan International Operating Company.

In South East Asia, SKM are crowing they've brought a Malaysian power station on line on time and on budget while a raft of Indonesian offshore contracts will be up for grabs in the next quarter.

The lads working on the Bayu-Undan topsides in the Hyundai docks in Korea had a fright when a 1000 tonne mobile crawler crane collapsed with its 40 tonne load onto a loading barge. Luckily there were no injuries and little damage though it is understood more than a few people wet themselves over the incident.

A landslide has wrecked Ecuador's main export pipeline, bringing that country's production to a virtual halt while the Brits are happy they've attracted the largest number of bids to their licensing rounds since the 1970s.

Two Perth Basin discoveries began production testing during the week, Eremia and Jingemia. No such luck for Empire Oil's Eclipse well which found 2-3 metres of oil, but none of the gas it was chasing.

Woodside don't seem concerned about the raft of LNG projects which achieved milestones this week. The closest project to the main markets of China and Japan, Sakhalin, won its foundation customer this week, while the first shipment from the third train of the Trinidad LNG plant was consigned.

Supersalesman Arthur Dixon has been seconded to Gorgon, which hopes he will replicate his $25 billion Chinese LNG sale. Pertamina however will lose its job selling Indonesia's LNG in favour of a new LNG marketing committee.

Out in the exploration sector, Novus finally struck some US exploration success, which has been the catalyst for Petsec's rebirth. Amadeus also spudded two US wells, and Amity continued its successful drilling streak in Turkey.

And a lot of news from New Zealand with talks of Todd and OMV whispering about Taranaki equity swaps while job numbers could be cut from STOS instead of Shell Petroleum Mining as was originally thought.

Production testing for Pohokura starts this weekend with talk that it may end up being bigger than originally thought. Which still won't help that fact that prominent explorationists assert at least a dozen wildcats a year are required to replace reserves instead of the current average of four.