The announcement sparked speculation surrounding potential suitors including Santos, Woodside, Mitsui as well as Origin Energy. The good money seems to be on Santos after the oil and gas major this week announced record production and sales volumes for 2002.
Reports emerged earlier in the week about another potential change of ownership in another large field. Looking to diversify its income stream, its is understood Multiplex boss John Roberts has basically told partners in the Greater Gorgon gas field off the WA coast to either use it or lose it. It is believed that Mr Roberts offered to buy a part of the Greater Gorgon gas field, however partners in the field - ChevronTexaco, Shell and ExxonMobil - rejected the offer. Political lobbying continues.
In the markets, Novus Petroleum shrugged off a disappointing US well result to announce a slight lift in income for the December quarter. Novus put the result down to increased production from the Brantas gas field in east Java and improving market conditions in Indonesia.
Closer to home, the increased ownership of oilfields in southwestern Queensland saw Beach Petroleum announce a record result for the six months to December 2002. Beach said new discoveries in the Cooper Basin were also a contributing factor.
Shareholders in miner and oil and gas hopeful Afminex will be hoping themselves their directors have more success in the Central Asian oilfields than they did in Australia's IT sector, where they achieved less than speculator results in some online ventures.
Concentrating on core business seems to be all the rage this week with both Oil Search and Molopo Australia disposing of their metal interests to focus on oil and gas exploration.
In the frontier news, it looks like a decision on commercial development of the Cliff Head oil discovery in offshore Western Australia will be made within four months after a production test showed a flow rate of 3000 barrels a day. Magellan Petroleum and INPEX spudded their Browse Basin wildcat this week while the Harriet Joint Venture was forced to P&A its Carnarvon Basin wildcat, Bob-1. In Queensland, Sunshine Gas capped off a good week by announcing it intends to commercialise its Overston gas discovery.
ASX-listed companies operating overseas had a particularly good week. Cash has begun to flow for Petsec Energy from its three gas discoveries on West Cameron, offshore Lousiana. First Australia Resources reported a positive flow test from the Rainosek-3 well in Texas. However, Amadeus Energy was forced to abandon the first well in Pitchfork Prospect in Texas.
Amity Oil and its Turkish partner have decided to complete the Gocerler-4 well for production, and kicked off another after wireline logs indicated presence of two gas bearing zones. In central Thailand, Carnarvon Petroleum said increased oil production from Phase II development of the Wichian Buri Oil Field has added to its bottom line.Oil Search has strengthened its hand in the highlands of PNG after an agreement with ExxonMobil to buy its stake in PPL 219.
While there is no additional war premium, the price of crude is hovering around the $US33 a barrel mark thanks to Mr Bush telling Saddam basically to disarm or face annihilation. The other factor keeping oil prices high is Venezuela. However, it seems the strikes against Hugo Chavez are losing their steam with reports emerging that the Chavez government has boosted production beyond the million barrel benchmark.
