Takeover bids for New Zealand’s Contact Energy may be announced next week, with Aussie companies AGL and Origin Energy likely frontrunners. AGL and Origin are considered the most likely buyers of Edison Mission Energy's 51% Contact share and, as required under New Zealand takeover regulations, the rest of the listed kiwi company which has a market capitalisation of about NZ$3.38billion.

At the same time Contact has launched a new Melbourne-based Australian retail business called Red Energy which will target industry leaders such as TXU Australia, Origin Energy and AGL.

The Mauritania joint venture partners have finalised and formally approved plans for a 2004 drilling campaign comprising up to ten exploration and appraisal wells and ten development wells (both production and injection) across offshore acreage containing the Chinguetti, Tiof and Banda oil and gas discoveries.

One of Australia's largest construction projects is nearing completion as the North West Shelf venture's much anticipated fourth LNG train gradually comes on line. This week gas began flowing into the $1 billion fourth train where it will be liquefied for export from the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.

Oil Search has postponed a vote on the future of the PNG Highlands gas scheme after a potential buyer told the project owners it would be running a review of its supply agreement. The company had previously said a vote on a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) decision by the owners was imminent after the group successively confirmed all requirements to enter FEED had been prepared.

Renewable energy specialist Pacific Hydro has begun construction of its much anticipated Yambuk Wind Farm, which constitutes the first stage of its Portland Wind Project, and commencement of the blade manufacturing facility in Portland Victoria. The 20 windmills planned for the 30MW facility should be completed by May 2005 and are expected to generate almost 100 gigawatt hours of clean power per annum. When all 120 windmills of the 195MW Portland Wind Project are commissioned, they will almost double Australia's wind energy generating capacity.

Renewable energy sources have another champion on the Australian Stock Exchange with Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (ASX:CFU), the developer of solid oxide fuel cell technology, making its lacklustre debut as a publicly listed company this week, 12 years after establishing itself in Melbourne.

Good news for the BassGas partners after drilling on the Yolla-4 well intercepted a new hydrocarbon-bearing sand between 2458-2467m, that was seemingly not present in Yolla-1 and Yolla-2, above the targetted main pay zones below 2700m.

Another major downstream player, Methanex New Zealand, has joined Contact Energy and Genesis Energy and jumped in upstream - it is believed to be funding the drilling of at least two onshore Taranaki wells.

The soon-to-list ShieldLiner has developed an innovative pipe relining technology which has potential applications in the piping infrastructure, oil, gas and mining industries. The unit operates by running through underground pipes repairing and sealing them to prevent further leaks, reducing costs as there is no need to dig trenches to remove the pipe for repair.

Perth-based Elixir Petroleum has closed its IPO oversubscribed. Targetting several North Sea permits the company was initially after $3,000,000 through the issue of 15 million shares at 20 cents per share.

The run of success enjoyed by companies such as Cooper Energy, Stuart Petroleum and Beach Petroleum in the Cooper Basin has inspired the launch of yet another oil and gas explorer, Entek Energy, with plans to target the region. Entek is a spinoff from Lion Energy, formerly Kalrez.

Queensland Gas Company (QGC) has finally received a resource reserve confirmation for its Berwyndale South coal bed methane (CBM) project that will allow the company to fulfill its gas supply with CS Energy.

Golden Gate and newly-taken-over Novus Petroleum have had some positive early results from their latest exploration campaign in the US with the Homerun-1 well identifying three zones totalling around 138 net feet that they believe will warrant testing.

Great Artesian Oil & Gas has continued to the next phase of its Cooper Basin program with production testing scheduled for both the Nutmeg-1 and Paranta-1 wells in the next few weeks. Although flow rates will not be known until tests are completed the company believes that the close proximity of the wells to the Santos-operated gas pipeline would make even moderate flow rates commercial.

Tasman Resources has become the latest Australian entrant into the UK energy field, with its subsidiary Eden Resources targetting conventional and coal bed methane targets in South Wales by farming into two separate joint ventures with Coastal Oil and Gas and UK Methane. Eden is in the process of placing an IPO.

Hardman Resources has broken through into the ASX top 100, due largely to the company's share in the impressive West African play in Mauritania which has uncovered over 220 million barrels of oil.

An advance payment from the South Australian Government has turned around Envestra's financial results for the year after the company had previously warned the market of an impending $10 million loss.

Coal bed methane (CBM) could soon be a staple energy supplier to the major residential and industrial centres in NSW if Eastern Star Gas (ESG) has its way after the company kicked off its 2004 CBM appraisal and development drilling program on the weekend with the spudding of Bohena South-1C.

Meanwhile as debate rages about the state of the world's oil supply and its limited resources Iran has taken the immediate pressure off with a massive discovery in the Yadavaran oilfield of around three billion recoverable barrels of oil.

There are some very definite losers this week with the future of Russian oil giant Yukos looking shaky as authorities move in to claim a US$3.4 billion back tax bill from 2000, pushing the company to the edge of bankruptcy. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former Yukos CEO, made a last ditch bid yesterday to hold off the creditors by offering his shares in Yukos to pay the massive tax bill after the company admitted it was not able to pay the debt without help from the government.

Transocean Inc has also said its Trident-20 jack-up rig, the world's biggest oil and gas driller, "suffered damage" when it caught fire on 3 July off the coast of Turkmenistan.

International giant Total has been forced to halt all production in Nigeria and withdraw its staff for safety reasons as local unions threaten strike action for conditions and pay rates similar to those of the ex-pats.