1. China's largest oil company, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), is interested in working with state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to develop onshore oil and gas reserves. CNPC's interest in developing oil and gas in the Philippines comes on the heels of a breakthrough agreement on evaluating reserves in the hotly contested South China Sea. The agreement stops short of drilling rights and development of any proven reserves. No decision has yet been made by the two oil companies on the precise areas to be evaluated.

2. Murphy Oil discovered oil in multiple zones at the Senangin-1 exploration well in deep waters off Sabah, Malaysian territory on the island of Borneo - with the find being a possible tie-in to the Kikeh development. The well was drilled in 4,695 ft (1,432 m) of water in Block K and reached a total measured depth of 15,962 ft (4,868 m). The Senangin structure is 8.7 miles (14 km) outboard of Kikeh field on a completely new trend. Murphy operates Block K, which covers more than 4 million acres, with an 80% stake. State-owned Petronas Carigali, a wholly-owned exploration and production arm of Petronas, holds the remaining 20%.

3. Nippon Oil started gas production from the Jintan field offshore Sarawak, Malaysian territory on the island of Borneo to the LNG plant in Bintulu. Shell Malaysia is operator of the field and holds a 37.5% interest in the Jintan gas field, which is located in the SK-8 Block off Sarawak. Nippon Oil owns a 37.5% stake, and Malaysia's Petronas Carigali has the remaining 25%.

4. CS Mutiara Petroleum, a joint venture between major Shell and Malayisa's state-owned Petronas, discovered gas in Block PM301 off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The Bunga Zetung-1 well reached a depth of 6,155 ft (1,876 m) and encountered four gas zones with estimated recoverable reserves of 200 Bcf. The gas discovery will be subject to further technical evaluation, said the venture. Bunga Zetung-1 is the second successive discovery in Block PM301 following the success of the Bunga Karnelia gas discovery in November 2003. The latest discovery is located 12 miles (20 km) southeast of the Bunga Karnelia gas field.

5. Murphy Oil's Pertang-1 exploration well offshore Malaysia contains natural gas in multiple zones. The well reached a total depth of 10,500 ft (3,202 m) measured depth and was drilled in 224 ft (68 m) of water in Block PM 311 off Peninsular Malaysia. "The news from the Pertang-1 well is quite significant coming on the heels of our Kenarong oil and gas discovery, also in Block PM 311. In Pertang we found low CO2 gas in high quality sands in our objective section. In addition, we found three zones at the bottom of the well that warrant further evaluation to confirm their hydrocarbon content," said Claiborne P. Deming, Murphy's president and chief executive officer.

6. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is offering equity in nine prospects and leads, with average mean reserves of more than 100 million bbl, in various exploration licenses. Oil Search has engaged IndigoPool to market a number of farm-out opportunities in their exploration license portfolio. Proven hydrocarbon systems have been established in PNG, with proven and probable resources now totaling 500 million bbl of oil and 13 Tcf of gas. Key fields are Kutubu (300 million bbl of oil) and Hides (5 Tcf of gas). Estimated mean reserves for identified prospects in PPL 240 and PPL 219 are 1.73 billion bbl (unrisked). Other blocks up for grabs are PPL 188, PPL 234 and PPL 239.

7. Clough Engineering and AMEC have won a multi-million dollar contract from ConocoPhillips to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the Bayu-Undan field development in the Timor Sea. Over the next 3 years, with an option to extend a further 2 years, the Clough-AMEC joint venture will service the production facilities at the Bayu-Undan gas and condensate field, which is estimated to hold more than 400 million bbl of hydrocarbon liquids and 3.4 Tcf of gas.

8. Woodside Energy is running wireline logs on its Polkadot-1 exploration well in block WA-313-P offshore Western Australia after hitting gas pay. Drilling continued in the 81/2-in. hole to a total depth of 12,438 ft (3,791 m) before wireline logging began. Preliminary evaluation indicates that the well, which was drilled on the southern flank of the Polkadot structure, has intersected three gas zones with a cumulative gross thickness of around 164 ft (50 m). Production testing is being planned to establish reservoir producibility.

9. Oilex and partner Victoria Petroleum have released the drilling rig for the Rookwood South-1 well in the ATP 608P concession in the Surat Basin, Queensland, and are gearing up to spud a new well. The well reached a total depth of 4,656 ft (1,419 m). Wireline logs were run prior to the running of production casing to production test the oil-bearing Boxvale Sandstone that recovered oil at the equivalent rate of 352 b/d on a drill stem test.

10. Austral Pacific Energy has been awarded two new blocks in New Zealand's Taranaki Basin. Petroleum Exploration Permit 38492 (PEP 38492) has awarded 100% to two wholly-owned subsidiaries of Austral Pacific and covers an offshore area of 27 sq miles (69 sq km) abutting the southern coastline of the Taranaki Peninsula. The acreage's southern boundary is next to PML 38146, which holds the Kupe South gas-condensate field, now under development, and the Toru-1 gas-condensate discovery. The giant Kapuni field, which has already produced well in excess of 1 Tcf of gas, lies onshore a short distance due north of PEP 38492's northern boundary at the coastline. Toru-1 was discovered in 1990 and is situated 6,562 ft (2,000 m) south of PEP 38492. It flow tested at a rate of 11.7 MMcf/d of gas, with an associated condensate rate of 842 b/d. Production Mining Permit 38153 (PMP 38153) was been granted to Austral (45%) and its partners Tap Oil (30%) and IRM (25%), effective Sept. 1, 2004, for 15 years. The block covers 2.3 sq miles (6 sq km) onshore Taranaki, incorporating the mapped extent of the Kahili gas-condensate field, and provides the legal right to produce that field under the terms of the permit.