A late night explosion on a Gulf of Mexico drill ship has left one worker dead and four others hospitalised while the death toll from a petrol pipeline explosion in Nigeria has risen to 125 with many of the charred victims having to be buried in mass graves.
On the M&A front, McConnell Dowell's independent directors have supported the mop-up takeover by major shareholder, Aveng Ltd.
Nexus shares have had a good run, easing back after doubling in the last month and the Matrix Oil administrator looks to have done a deal with the blue sky end of the suspended producer's assets. No word though on what's happening to their Langsa oilfield though or the $60 million suit it has bought against the contractor.
In CBM world, Arrow Energy (operator) and Anzoil have started production from the Tipton West project.
Tap Oil has announced details of an active onshore Taranaki exploration program - up to eight wells to be drilled during the next nine months. Rationalisation of the distribution sector continued after TrustPower, the smallest of the big five electricity generator-retailers, sold 8500 of its customers to state-owned rival Mighty River Power.
Australia's largest wind farm project looks to have received the green light while Meridian Energy in New Zealand is planning a 55 turbine facility.
WA government launches study into chemicals industry while Western Power's Kwinana power station plan has been thrown into disarray after the state government cut its financial lifeline and it discovered that there is a shortage of gas to fuel the station. ..
Good news for the Legendre partners with production being lifted by around 30% to 46,000 bopd.
The first well in a new wave of Cooper Basin drilling kicked off with Christies-1 well while Woodside has plugged and abandoned two unsuccessful wells this week, one in the Carnarvon Basin and one of the Gulf of Mexico.
Japanese company Inpex has started the second stage of its exploration program at the 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) Brewster field off the coast of Western Australia, kicking off the Ichthys well last week.
Shell Deepwater Borneo is likely to follow the example of Total and shelve oil and gas exploration plans offshore Brunei, due to territorial disputes between Malaysia and Brunei and Amity Oil has become the first private sector natural gas production company in Turkey to hold a Wholesale Gas Licence.
