CHINA is coming under pressure to exercise "goodwill" and allow Australia's biggest single export contract - the $25 billion Guangdong LNG deal with the North West Shelf project - to be renegotiated. The contract, which was initialled in 2002, has no provision for price revision, meaning that the NW Shelf partners are potentially missing out on billions of dollars in revenue resulting from the surge in world energy prices. The first cargo in the 25-year supply deal with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) to ship 3.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to a receival terminal in Guangdong province was loaded at the Burrup Peninsula in May 2006.

Last week the government-owned CNOOC agreed to pay 31 per cent more for LNG from BP's Tangguh project in West Papua, which is scheduled to begin production next year. The Indonesian Government intervened to ensure that original contract prices were lifted. The cost of Tangguh LNG deliveries will increase to $US5.93 a million British thermal units from the 2006 contract price of $US4.54/mmbtu, according to Indonesia's oil and gas regulator, BPMigas.

While the precise terms of the NW Shelf Guangdong contract have not been revealed, it has for years been regarded as exceptionally low, with some reports indicating the delivered price could be as low as $US3.15/mmbtu, based on an oil price of $US20 a barrel. The contract, China's first for the supply of LNG, was seen by the Howard government as an important step in developing economic relations with Beijing, and the NW Shelf partners came under pressure to agree to terms that were advantageous to CNOOC.

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At first glance, the red ship hardly looks like a herald of the future. Even its owner admits the hull needs a coat of paint and the interior some spit and polish. But in a few weeks, the Elding - Icelandic for Lightning - will be transformed into the world's first hydrogen-equipped commercial vessel, the latest sign that Iceland is pushing hard to become the first nation to break free from the constraints of fossil fuel.

Come April, visitors to Reykjavik, Europe's northernmost capital, will get a taste of that future by taking whale-watching tours on the ship, or renting one of the world's first hydrogen-powered hire cars. The conversion of the Elding to hydrogen power will initially be confined to the use of a fuel cell to power the engine that runs its lighting, but for €43 ($82.44) a trip, the ship will offer whale-watchers unprecedented peace. ...

With limited global supplies of oil and gas and mounting worries about greenhouse gas emissions, the race to find an ideal green transport fuel is gaining urgency. Since hydrogen can be made from plain water and produces only electricity and water vapour when burned, its backers see it as a prime candidate. But producing it from water takes electricity, and according to 2005 data from the International Energy Agency, 67 per cent of the world's electric power still comes from non-renewable sources such as coal, gas and other fossil fuels.

Two-thirds of electricity in volcanic Iceland is already derived from renewable sources - its plentiful rivers and waterfalls and the geothermal heat that boils beneath itscrust. This has allowed the country to break new ground in hydrogen testing, with the world's first commercial hydrogen refuelling station in 2003 and the first hydrogen-powered rental cars last year. "It has a very exotic energy system where hydrogen could make sense," said Dolf Gielen, senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency's technology office.

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