Takeover on the horizon
Horizon Oil, a producer in New Zealand and China and a significant player in Papua New Guinea, is understood to be in takeover discussions.
"Sources on Wednesday night said the $436 million company could announce a deal as early as this week," the Australian Financial Review reported.
The news comes not long after Horizon and its long-running PNG partner Talisman Energy finally received the necessary licence approval to start work on their $US300 million Stanley condensate project in PNG's Western province.
However, the AFR did not count Talisman among its list of potential bidders of Santos, AWE and Roc Oil.
Horizon has since started this morning by entering a trading halt, which may not be lifted until Tuesday.
The Sydney-based company said the halt was over a potential market control transaction, which it was still considering.
Woodside in Cypress speculation
With Woodside's negotiations for a significant stake of the Israel-based Leviathan gas project joint venture dragging on, Israeli newspaper Calcalist has claimed that Leviathan operator Noble Energy had held separate talks with Woodside over its Aphrodite field in offshore Cypress.
These negotiations were reportedly over a 20-30% stake of this gas field, which hosts about 5-8 trillion cubic feet of gas resources.
Woodside has not responded to this report, according to The Australian.
The Israeli government's proposed gas-related tax policy has been a key challenge for Woodside so far.
Piracy expansion
Eight Indonesian fishing vessel-faring pirates have reportedly raided an oil tanker in the Malacca Strait trading route near Malaysia's Port Klang at about 1am on Tuesday morning.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency estimated that 3 of the 4.5 million litres of diesel on board the Naniwa Maru No.1 tanker were pumped out into two waiting vessels.
Of greater concern, three Indonesian crew of the tanker including the captain and chief engineer are missing.
"There is a possibility that the abducted crew was involved in the hijack based on new leads and that their personal documents, clothes and belongings were taken along with then," the agency claimed.
Reuters reported that the incident has fuelled fears that piracy could be on the rise and will drive up insurance premiums.
"It's the first time this has happened so far north in the Malacca Strait, and the first time they have kidnapped the crew," International Maritime Bureau's Malaysia-based Piracy Reporting Centre head Noel Choong reportedly said.
"It's not an area where we have seen the modus operandi of ships hijacked for their cargo."
Fraccing fail
A legal precedent against the safety of Barnett shale fraccing was set after a Dallas jury ruled against Aruba Petroleum in a 5:1 decision on Tuesday which gave a former local ranch-owning family a $2.9 million payout for the sickness and inconvenience they have suffered.
According to the Star Telegram, the plantiffs of Bob and Lisa Parr sought more than $9 million in damages when they first filed their lawsuit in 2011.
The couple, who also have a daughter, claimed that an Aruba drilling operation forced them to move from their property.
Of the payout, $275,000 is reportedly for lost property value, $2.4 million is past mental anguish, pain and suffering and $250,000 is for "future pain and suffering".
Anti-fraccers are buoyed by the news.
"Today's decision might take some of the wind out of the fracking windbags who prattle on endlessly about how inaccurate Gasland [the documentary film] is," former Barnett shale area resident known as "Texas Sharon" said on her BlueDaze blog.
"Six regular people who knew nothing about fracking were presented with the facts and awarded the victims $3 million dollars. It's going to be hard to spin that."
