Great post. Todays Wall Street journal echoes Australias role in LNG. Here are some key quotes:

"Royal Dutch Shell and Petrochina made a joint bid of 3.3 billion Australian dollars for Australian coal-seam gas producer ARROW Energy Ltd., in another sign ofthe surging interest in Australia's unconventional natural gas."

"The major international oil companies have been flocking to Australia, which has billions of cubic feet ofcoal-seam gas."

"In 2008 alone the Australian industry attracted 17 billion dollars Aus in investment....."

A JV partnership is going to happen---probably with multiple partners--just my opinion. Its all about the quality of the resource and we are in the right country at the right time.