UPI - Japanese team eyes PNG gas. For a while last year I thought the gas pipeline from PNG to Asutralia would get built and we would take most of PNG's gas - but it appears it is now a contest between China and Japan.

Top Japanese officials are in Papua New Guinea with an eye on gas investments. Officials from Itochu Corp., Mitsubishi Gas Chemicals Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Nippon Oil Exploration Ltd., JGC Corp., LNG Japan Corp., Cosmo Oil Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. were part of a 24-member team in Papua New Guinea for meetings from Monday through Friday. Michael Maue, the PNG envoy to Japan, is traveling with the delegation along with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Radio New Zealand - PNG oil company praised for environment role

A renowned American scientist says Papua New Guinea’s largest oil company operates cleanly and protects wildlife. The evolutionary biologist and author Jared Diamond has just spent three weeks surveying birds in the Kikori-Kutubu area of PNG where Oil Search operates rigs in jungle clearings and pumps oil to the coast.

At a public lecture in Port Moresby he said Oil Search’s policies of limiting forest destruction and banning hunting by employees had made its oil fields the best place to see PNG’s endangered species, such as parrots and tree kangaroos.

Professor Diamond says outside the oil fields, hunting and forest cutting have decimated wildlife populations. He says there are too many examples around the world of dirty resource extractors including Papua New Guinea’s logging and fishing industries, and the oil fields are a hopeful sign.

Last year, Oil Search admitted it was responsible for a spill of about seven thousand litres of oil in the Gulf of Papua. Locals reported dead turtles being washed ashore, but the companied denied any environmental damage.

Radio Australia - Australia funds improved PNG transport

Australia says it will work closely with Papua New Guinea to improve the maintenance and upgrading of key highways, ports and airports. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has announced a Transport Sector Support Program worth $US247 million over four years. Mr Downer says the program will help rural communities to reach markets via the continued maintenance of four-thousand kilometres of priority national roads. This includes the maintenance of 215 kilometres of the New Britain Highway in West New Britain Province to help oil palm producers get to mills and markets.

The foreign minister says the ongoing upkeep of the Highlands Highway will maintain a key link for imports and exports through the principal port of Lae.

BBC - Coconut oil powers island's cars

For years, the people of Bougainville have been dependent on expensive fuel imported onto the island. Shortages have often caused many businesses in this part of Papua New Guinea to grind to a halt. High energy costs have not helped either. Increasingly, locals are turning to a cheaper and far more sustainable alternative to diesel. Coconut oil is being produced at a growing number of backyard refineries.

ABC - Aust company hopes to mine PNG seabed

" A small Australian company says it's on the verge of the biggest mining revolution in almost a century. There's just one catch. The company has to mine nearly two kilometres underwater on the Papua New Guinea sea floor. Once thought too far-fetched, new technology has now made commercial seabed mining a possibility."

And now on to ANZ news.

The Age - Pollution permits to pay energy costs

The Age - Electricity demand up as first big heat sets in

The Age - World Solar Challenge - Full beam ahead: like the beetles, they'll follow the sun

ABC - Turnbull hints at nuclear power alternatives

Rigzone - Tokyo Gas Gets 5% Stake in Australian Gas Field. Presumably Pluto ?

Forbes - Indonesia planning to cut gas exports to Japan. It seems Australia is replacing Indonesian exports to Japan.

The Age - Anzon, ARC Energy in merger talks

Rigzone - Why China Can Withstand $90 a Barrel Oil - And Higher

Stuff.co.nz - The fossil fools

Peak Energy - Tiny Solar Cells