Roc Oil, operator of WA-286P, and its partners will not be stopping at this well. Further north, on the same geological trend but within exploration permit area TP/15 is the Twin Lions structure, which is estimated to contain up to 360 million barrels of oil.
Staying in WA, junior explorer Sun Resources has farmed into WA-257P, offshore Carnarvon Basin. Meanwhile, Queensland-based Magellan Petroleum is looking to spud a wildcat in the Browse Basin late next week when the drilling rig arrives on location.
Sydney-based Novus Petroleum is hoping to take advantage of the expected upturn in Asian economies by cranking up production at its Wunut gas field (Brantas PSC) in Indonesia. Production at the field had been held back ever since the Asian economies went into meltdown mode in 1997. However, Novus said it is hoping to get production back up to the field's capacity of 50 million cubic feet per day.
While Novus is looking to lift up gas production, Matrix Oil is busy trying to offload its listed shell company as well as its interests in the highly prospective North Sumatra Basin. As many of you probably know, Matrix Oil went into voluntary administration late last year after failing to find the necessary funds to keep its Langsa oil field running. Matrix got into financial strife after one of its wells was forced to shut down due to a mechanical failure.
Looking for little more luck in Indonesia is Santos, which just kicked off a big seismic shoot in Sampang PSC, offshore East Java.
In the markets, junior explorer Norwest Energy's recently completed share issue raised $2 million. Coalbed methane pioneer Sydney Gas Co is looking forward to further developing its Camden gas project after getting an extension to its $25 million equity line.
Engineering contractor Downer-RML (the former Ralph M Lee) was the recipient of a big contract from Woodside Petroleum and its North West Shelf partners. The contract is for electrical and instrumentation work on fourth LNG train.
Oil giant Caltex Australian says it will not charge customers for using their credit cards in its 71 company-owned stores. Only problem is that customers could be slugged with charges in the company's nearly 2000 franchises. So it is really only a pyrrhic victory for petrol consumers.
Energy consumers in SA will have a lot more to worry about than being charged for using their credit cards when buying petrol. As taxpayers, they face the grim prospect of losing $140 million in order to honour an electricity supply contract that struggling US company NRG Energy has with the Osborne Power Station. Like Enron, NRG Energy is threatening to declare bankruptcy and go into Chapter 11.
The $450 million BassGas project will proceed to construction after receiving final State and Federal government approval. The project involves developing the Yolla gas field in the Bass Strait. Another project getting government approval was Methanol Australia's $2 billion methanol plant that will use gas from the Evan Shoal field in the Timor Sea. Shares in Methanol Australian jumped 42% after Monday's announcement.
With events in Iraq and Venezuela conspiring to drive oil prices beyond $US33 a barrel late last week, Russia and OPEC swing producer Saudi Arabia decided to take matter into their hands and agree to maintain "stability", which is code for keeping production high so oil prices goes down.
The US has threatened to give the Venezuela the sack and look for alternative supplies if the turmoil in that country persists. It seems that nobody there is listening and the strike will probably go into its seventh week. Of course, they could just skip the strike altogether and go straight into a full-blown civil war.
While the leftist government of Hugo Chavez is in crisis, across the border in Brazil, the leftist government of "Lula" da Silva is hoping to make a better fist of things by appointing an ex-union boss and geologist to head state-owned oil company Petrobras.
With oil prices around $US30 bbl mark and its sources of supply in the Middle East and Venezuela looking shaky, the release of a hybrid petrol-electric car by auto giant General Motors could not have come at a better time for Americans. Hybrids use two or power sources, usually a petrol engine augmented by one or more electric motors.
