Bosses at the world's Oil Giants are dribbling into their martinis at the thought of acquiring the rights to explore in India for the first time. Companies have ten days to submit bids on fifty-five exploration blocs around the country in one of the largest oil and gas auctions ever staged. Why not ask your neighbourhood Hedge Fund to take a punt? All they need is eight million pounds and they will be sent an Information Pack and encouraged to join the bidding.

The Indian Government is hoping that Western Companies will fork out upwards of four thousand million pounds to speculate in the twelve thousand square miles on offer. This marks the first time that ExxonMobil, British Petroleum...Broken Pipelines in Alaska...and ChevronTexaco have had a bite at Indian Reserves.

Shell has been there before but sold its Indian assets to the British company Cairns Energy two years ago complaining about Indian Bureaucracy...code for not getting normal giveaway terms and conditions. Both Shell and Cairns are bidding.

But this is still small beer compared to some of the deals being put together in Europe. The German Engineering Group Linde A/G for instance has merged with the British industrial gases giant British Oxygen Group...rebranded many years ago as BOC...to form The Linde Group.

But all this is dwarfed by the latest Russian Geopolitical Realignment in Central Asia. Gazprom...Europe's biggest gas supplier...has struck a deal with Turkmenistan...there has been a series of abortive negotiations and several sideshows in Ukraine, Kakakhstan and Uzbekistan. But Russian President Putin has clout nowadays.

Gazprom supplies a quarter of Europe's needs but the Russian Energy Giant doesn't have enough gas both to fulfil export contracts and keep the home fires burning. Instead of drilling more wells in Russia, Gazprom buys fuel from the Central Asian Republics profiting from their isolation to purchase gas cheaply...until now.

Negotiations with Turkmenistan kept stalling because the Russians refused to concede a 50% price hike. But the Turkmens finally got themselves a deal that has Gazprom paying $100 per 1000 cubic metres...up from the $65 they were getting before. The contractual delivery promises are for 500 000 million cubic feet per year equivalent to half of the UK's annual consumption.

Nearly all this gas is destined for Ukraine which is also a conduit for 80 percent of Gazprom's exports to Europe...and the weakest link in the continent's energy supply network. The Ukrainian Economy burns 75 percent of UK consumption and can hold the Russians...and Europe...to ransom if it doesn't get the gas it asks for at the price it wants.

Last winter Gazprom tried to strong-arm Ukrainian President Yuschenko nto a threefold price increase by shutting the taps on New Year's Day. Ukraine responded by diverting fuel from Gazprom's export lines. The political row resulted in alarming pressure drops along gas pipelines to Austria, Hungary and Italy...and price surges in the London Spot Market.

If Gazprom is paying 50% more for Turkmen gas it is a fair bet that Ukraine faces another sharp price increase or demands that it surrender control of the transit pipes that funnel Russian gas to Europe...although Gazprom is less interested in squeezing more dollars out of Ukraine than in consolidating its control over its export routes.

Meanwhile Europe can only watch while this gas opera plays out and mutter protests about its Energy Charter Treaty...still not ratified by Moscow...and the need for gas market liberalisation...a concept many millions of cubic feet from Russia's own agenda.

But this is Central Asia...at the centre of our One World Island...so Europe is far from being the only player in the casino. Turkmenistan recently signed an agreement to supply 300 000 million cubic feet of gas per year to China...by pipeline. Just four problems. The pipeline goes through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India...and it hasn't been built yet.

Meanwhile Europe is angling for a subsea pipeline across the Caspian Sea to link up with a BP gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey. What a pity nobody really knows how much gas remains under the Turkmen steppes. Five copies were made of a report on the most recent survey of Turkmen gas reserves and not one has been allowed out of the President's Office. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

In the middle of England the Gas Opera has reached the wilds of Lincolnshire with the construction of an enormous Gas Storage Facility. My elder brother is at the sharp end…drafted in to sort out the mess for his German paymasters. ‘Where’s it at?’ I asked. ‘Planning Application is in.’ ‘Application? There must be one for every few hundred yard of pipeline!’

He smiled wryly. ‘Well yes…but the Germans thought they could just tick a few boxes and that was it. My job is mostly political…explaining to the Germans what is involved in getting Planning Permission in the UK and explaining to the English Planners how the Germans look at things. We are making steady progress. The Germans are becoming adept at adjusting project schedules to political reality.’ Hmm!

Today I resolved to walk the Old Tramway to Rye Harbour for the first time since I moved the boat from Rock Channel to the River Rother. I got as far as Sea Cruisers on the Old Winchelsea Road. Here I spied my old sailing skipper Master Mariner Gilbert White hobbling across to his boat from his car.

Gilbert has always had a hate for lawns, grass and the mowing thereof. Three months ago he took his obsessions to unreasonable heights by breaking his ankle as he set off upon the hated chore. Today was only his second time in Rye since the accident.

After an hour or so chewing the cud I took my leave and hurried across Brede’s Sluice before something else delayed me. The reports were correct. There was action at the far end of the Rye Harbour Road. Work has really started on a Cycle Path. Only six months late…and only destined to go to the start of the footpath along the tramway. But let us be thankful for small mercies. Perhaps my advice will be taken and the route will now follow the Old Tramway.

While this was the purpose of my ramble it turned out not to be the highlight. I was puzzled to see a species of bird over Castle Waters that I had no memory of seeing before. It looked like a tern with all the dipping and diving and the forked tail I would associate with terns. But it was black and not white. I no longer have easy access to my references so I had to wait until Monday to satisfy my curiosity.

It turns out that there is such a bird as a Black Tern which spends its summers in the marshes of Northern Europe and then migrates to West Africa for the winter. This autumn they have been seen in lakes and reservoirs in many parts of England. They belong to a group of terns that have black bodies in the summer and go by the name of Marsh Terns.

Some of these passing migrants still have their dark plumage which in winter eventually retreats along their bodies until just their head remains black. They look like bird shadows as they flit lazily over the water or drop down to take insects from the lake surface. The few I saw were in pairs but on Mediterranean and African estuaries they gather in enormous flocks in much the same way as the starlings do here on Romney Marsh when preparing to fly south.

Over the next few weeks we have a few exciting cosmic events playing around with Sea-Level Data ensuring that future generations will have their work cut out massaging Recorded Data to deliver reliable Adjusted Raw Data to their Climate Models.

First there is the fortnightly Spring Tide…as in rise up not as in Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The next three of these straddle one of the two annual Equinoxes when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in alignment and the Sun is directly over the Equator…which in terms of Local Cosmic Dynamics means that the Earth is doing a hand-brake turn at the far end of her elliptical orbit around the Sun.

Every four and a half year a high Spring Tide coincides with a Perigee…when the Moon is closest to the Earth. We have one of these this weekend. But what makes the Global Warming Priesthood rub their hands in glee…in the hope of much flooding and generalised water-borne catastrophe…is that every 18.6 year the Moon reaches the extreme of its orbit around the Earth…you are there before me…and this is where we are this week.

The Doom & Despair Brigade now long for a couple of local weather events to spice this Cosmic Brew…a severe storm in the English Channel whipping up big waves. And a low pressure drawing the sea up higher than normal.

Present forecasts suggest that the Carbonistas will be out of luck…at least this coming weekend. But they have a couple more chances before everything settles back down to normal. But meanwhile the probability of extravagant claims being precipitated by an array of Global Warming Interest Groups and Abrupt Climate Change Advocates remains high.

Anything that happens will be attributed to Man of course. And will be used to make strident calls for a New Kyoto Protocol and the immediate tightening of Global Carbon Emission Targets. Ignore them. They are Scientific Humbug. We live in a Cosmic Universe with chunks of molten…and not so molten…stuff moving around at a hell of a rate of knots. As for the other 96% of matter in the universe. We haven’t the foggiest idea what it is.

Since the collapse of the September Radical Consultation I have devoted most of my available computer time to Climate Change and have finally completed a 9000-word Tavern Talk with Bill Shepherd ready for posting onto my Shepherd on Climate website. My animated conversation with the Environmental Lawyer Constanza Calderón, the Hollywood-based Environmental Advocate Margaret Kennedy and the Californian TV Presenter Thomas H. Naylor Jnr. has discussions of five specific subjects that will be extracted and introduced into next week’s weblogs. The five subjects are Glaciers, the Kyoto Protocol, Redwood Forests, environmental management history in Yellowstone National Park and Extreme Weather, Hurricanes & Tornadoes.

At the beginning of the 20th Century the English died of Infectious Diseases. By the end of the century the biggest killer was Cardiovascular Disease…heart attacks and strokes in layman language. But stupendous advances in the prevention and treatment of blood pressure and heart-related problems means that Cancer is now the biggest BritKiller. Perhaps when Being Normal means never going to see a doctor we will all die of Old Age?