A Santos subsidiary has been fined the equivalent of around 6000 barrels of oil after pleading guilty in the Queensland Magistrates Court in the second-largest prosecution of an environmental crime in Queensland after the Moonie - Brisbane oil pipeline ruptured on March 18 this year, resulting in a $300,000 fine with an additional $55,000 for associated court costs.

Nine days after an explosion at Nippon Steel Corp's Tokai factory another coke gas tank at the facility caught fire as it was being reinforced against the impending Typhoon Maemi. No one was injured in the fire that started on Friday morning.

Australia's current hotch-potch of safety regulations will hopefully be standardised with the advent of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, launched by Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane yesterday.

For the second consecutive year Green Electricity Watch has proclaimed Origin Energy as Australia's national market leader in environmental practices and products.

In exploration news, the Harriet Joint Venture’s Campbell-6 appraisal/development well has continued the recent theme of non-commercial gas shows in the drilling program by intersecting a 23m residual gas column within the Flag Sandstone. The partners commenced production from the Hoover and North Pedirka oil fields while it spudded the Karangi-1 exploration well.

Nearby and just a day after reporting positive hydrocarbon shows the tight Mosman-1 well has been plugged and abandoned.

Onshore and down the coast, the Jingemia 2 appraisal well will be sidetracked after the reservoir quality proved to be unsuitable for water injection, while on the other side of the Brand Highway, the Hovea Oil Field has reached a major production milestone by passing the million barrel mark, the bulk of which has been lifted since the permanent facilities were commissioned in March this year.

At the very north of the state, Kimberley Oil is hoping that recent advances in horizontal drilling technology will open up a 164 million barrel resource in the Canning basin after the company received final approval from Aboriginal leaders for access.

In Central Australia, the Cooper Energy/Stuart Petroleum Joint Venture will kick off its 2003 Cooper Basin drilling campaign with the spudding of the Worrior-1 well, located in PEL 93, as Beach P&As the Brighton-1 well after failing to find any commercial hydrocarbons.

Over the state border and Santos along with junior partner Drillsearch Energy have announced a four well drilling program within ATP 299P, Tintaburra, south west Queensland, will kick off in November while fracture stimulation has turned around the fortunes of the nearby Overston-1 well after testing was completed over the weekend.

In the Americas and Woodside and BHPB are winding down operations at the Neptune-5 sidetrack 1 and sidetrack 2 appraisal wells, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Atwater Valley Block 574 while a little closer to shore, Petsec Energy's West Cameron 343 #A-19 well has encountered two hydrocarbon bearing sands with a total of 10m (32 feet) of net gas pay.

In finance news, Dallas-based TXU has secured a ready supply of Otway Basin gas in order to sustain revenue as it considers moves for a $2 billion float to raise capital. Natural gas distributor Envestra has managed to secure $266 million of long term funding after signing an agreement with six US investors.

The battle to buy Loy Yang has escalated with Malaysian hospitality player Genting formally joining the bidding race as rival AGL seeks a declaration from the Federal Court that its purchase of a 35% interest is not in breach of the Trade Practices Act.

Santos has decided to accept the off-market take-over offer by Origin Energy of $4.25 per share for the remaining 11,793,140 shares Santos holds in OCA while Icon Energy's move to the US has resulted in a 'same problem, different scenery' scenario as the coal bed methane (CBM) hopeful continues to struggle in its search for project finance.

The Indian government's plan to sell two state-owned oil companies has hit a speed bump in the form of the country's Supreme Court, which has restrained the government from selling its stakes in Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp without parliamentary approval.

An extended 18 year power purchase deal between Western Power and Exmouth Power Station Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Burns and Roe Worley Limited has secured a new six megawatt gas fired power station for Exmouth, north of Perth. CNG will be trucked 220km from the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline to fuel the station.

The on again - off again Tangguh LNG project in West Papua /Irian Jaya received good news with Mitsui taking a 10% stake in the project and two new sales deals. US company Sempra Energy said it would take around 10 million tonnes per year for the US west coast market while a large-scale, state-of-the-art gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in Fujian province, China would be burning Tangguh LNG.