Gun project manager Janet Hann has been appointed Santos team leader and may open a Perth office for the project.

On the other side of the country, the SA giant is in the unfamiliar role of non-operator of the Churchie oil project in Qld as Mosaic Oil was granted a 23 year production licence.

In Kiwi, NGC sold the Southdown power station which could be the first of several asset sales for the AGL subsidiary. Exploration wise, the Kahili well looks to have come up trumps with a 35 metre test zone.

Newcomer Transworld Energy will take over the drilling of next year's offshore Tui well, with a target of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil while the Australian-based OMV has confirmed its interest in taking over as operator of the marginal, undeveloped Kupe gas-condensate field off south Taranaki.

In the US, Amadeus have tweaked the production of an Oklahoman well while Orchard has farmed into further wells with its domestic partner. El Paso flagged its exit from the energy trading business, following the examples of Dynegy, Aquila and American Electric Power Company.

Petsec seems to be on the comeback trail again after its third successive gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, while Woodside has farmed into a high impact well nearby.

On the world scene, Nigeria said it would forbid all flaring operations from 2008, while in Pakistan, either tribal rebels or terrorists lobbed a rocket onto a gas well, causing a short term blowout.

Looking locally and the future of the Wesfarmers LPG plant in Kwinana is in doubt when the sweetheart LPG-stripping legacy deal from the 1980s days expires in 2005. On the up side, Native Title hurdles concerning the Burrup are being overcome with the announcement of a peace deal between two thirds of the claimants. As the song goes, two out of three ain't bad.

Leightons has picked up a billion dollar win for a solar turbine plant in NSW while in the same renewable energy sector Alan Burns (doesn't the man ever go home?) is pulling together a wave power system which will generate fresh water and electricity.

And finally, aggressive bidding for project work may have come home to roost for Clough with shock profit downgrades from cost overruns. Mums and dads were generally happy at the AGM but the big money still wants boardroom blood.

Clough boss Brian Hewitt has said my story this week was wrong in detail, but he has neither specified which are the projects in question nor disclosed what Lakshmi will cost Clough when it does make public the loss provisions for the project. Project nightwatchman John Brewer is deserving of a gong, by all reports.