Nearby, competition to take over the operation of the offshore Kupe gas-condensate field is believed to have become essentially a two-horse race between Aussie companies Santos and Origin Energy.
Onshore and Indo-Pacific Energy boss Dave Bennett hopes his Cheal oil field will prove bigger than its more northern neighbour, the soon-to-be-developed Kahili gas-condensate discovery, when they test shortly.
Even though Contact Energy is wary of the market power of the Pohokura partners, it believes the importance of security of gas supply overrides those concerns, according to chief executive Steve Barrett.
New Zealand's Crown Minerals has gone interactive with its maps of the country's petroleum exploration acreage which should assist the two consortiums - Tap Oil and AWE, and Canadian company TAG Oil and Wellington-headquartered Indo-Pacific Energy - which this week won two new offshore Canterbury Basin permits.
Todd Energy is declining to confirm that its first well without long-time partner Shell, Patea East-1, turned out to be a dry hole.
It's also been a notable week in the markets with Woodside announcing a first half profit of $272 million, a three percent rise on the previous year's $264 million due mainly to higher oil and gas prices. The figures were aided by its adoption of a new policy on writing off unsuccessful exploration, which lead to profit from a year ago being restated.
After a year that has seen several Australian energy providers fall to the wayside the Australian Gas Light Co (AGL) today reported a net profit of $295 million for the 12 months to June 30, 2003 compared to $192.1 million for the same period the year before.
In a positive first half year, Santos has come out ahead with a slight increase in profit to $170 million, however the largest impact on the company's future came with the approval of the Bayu-Undan project in the Timor Sea.
Golden Gate Resources - the former Valdera Resources cashbox - experienced a solid debut when it relisted on the ASX on Friday while the ASX has queried Sunshine Gas' share price rise in recent days, after the stock doubled from 20 cents to 45c in less than a week.
The pulp forests of Australia are a little safer now that Kalrez Energy has bitten the bullet and plans to reduce the company's issued capital from over a billion to just 40 million shares, in a 1 for 30 reconstruction.
Shareholders who hung in during the Amity Oil's recent stock fluctuations look to have been rewarded with some encouraging flows from the Yesiltepe well in Turkey while WA's Carnarvon Basin continues to reward its small structure disciples after the Taunton-3 appraisal well confirmed the 3-5 million barrel oil discovery.
The CSIRO has confirmed further oil shows at InterOil's Moose-1 well in PNG, according to an InterOil statement and joining the good news, the participants in the North Pedirka-1 well, located in TL/7 8km south of Varanus Island, celebrated a commercial discovery.
Santos has expanded its deepwater acreage in the offshore Otway Basin having been awarded its sixth operated exploration permit in the area.
Amadeus Energy has had another disappointing result as the Seay Land and Cattle Company No.1 well in Oklahoma, operated by Trio Operating Inc, indicated no oil shows. The well has been plugged and abandoned over the weekend. It hasn't stopped its upward moving share price however.
Nippon Oil Corp, Japan's largest oil refiner, has cut its profit forecast by 14% for the year to next March, blaming the impact of the emergency closure of two refineries following a safety scandal. The company still expects a 25 billion yen (US$211 million) net profit. The original forecast was for a 29 billion yen (US$246 million).
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is holding talks with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for a proposed deep-sea exploration project.
ROC Oil has finalised the acquisition of an additional 15% interest in the Cabinda South Block, onshore Angola, held by Lacula Oil Company.
BHP Billiton is planning to build a $US500 million floating LNG terminal off the Californian coast to tap into the growing demand for natural gas in the US.
Unocal says a subsidiary made a significant gas, condensate and oil discovery in the Gehem prospect from the Gehem-1 well in the Ganal production sharing area offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
An environmental disaster is unfolding on Pakistan's coastline along the northern Arabian Sea after the Greek oil tanker The Tasman Spirit ran aground and broke in two. The tanker was stranded last month near Karachi harbour, and is still holding around 32,000 tonnes of crude oil after about 12,000 tonnes had already spilled out of the ship causing a massive loss of wildlife.
Still on the waters, and Pertamina has embarked on an ambitious program to acquire 12 oil tankers by the end of 2003.
The privately-owned Coogee Chemicals has a chance to become the sole operator of the Montara Field if it gets the go-ahead to buy Newfield Exploration's stake in the ageing Jabiru and Challis oilfields in the Timor Sea.
Technical problems have delayed gas shipments via the new 477km Indonesia to Singapore gas pipeline, recently opened after the much heralded inauguration by President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok.
The Sultan of Brunei has reiterated his resolve to continue exploration for oil and gas resources on land and sea he says rightly belongs to Brunei, flagging an upgrade in the country's LNG capacity.
Production from one well in the Woollybutt field has been re-established while operations to restart the second well are ongoing.
Drill bit manufacturer, SDS Corporation, has appointed a long time Schlumberger executive as CEO of the struggling group, to be based in Adelaide.
