While there is a sense of inevitability that InterOil's Elk-Antelope discoveries will help fuel a PNG LNG expansion there are also signs that InterOil's previous modular LNG plans are not completely off the negotiating table either - indicating that two gas commercialisation avenues may eventuate.

Marengo Mining's Australian Securities Exchange-listed shares rose quite significantly on the back of its recent capital raising outcome from a private equity firm while its Toronto-listed shares performed less impressively.

As for its Port Moresby-listed shares, we have omitted the trading figures provided by this bourse this week out of concerns there was a technical error.

While there were some other interesting gains made on our watchlists this week, most PNG-related commodities were treading water.

London Metal Exchange cash copper was generally flat for the overall week and closed at $7286.75 a tonne overnight.

LME spot nickel was also relatively unchanged but remains in murky sub-$15,000/t waters as it closed at $14,727.50/t last night.

Singapore Tapis crude, the benchmark of the Asia Pacific, was also largely unchanged for the week as it closed at $106.92 a barrel overnight.

Spot gold is telling a different story as it traded at around $1418.27 an ounce in the past hour. It is a 2.3% gain from last Friday's close.

While some elements of the blogosphere are focusing on a war between paper and physical gold markets, ANZ provided somewhat enigmatic views on the 1.7% gain in spot gold overnight.

"There was a fresh upside break-out on the charts from month-end book squaring," ANZ said.

"The firmer euro against the US dollar also supported gold overnight.

"Rumours of an improvement in investment demand added to the bullish sentiment for gold but we feel solid evidence of returning investment interest will be required before we feel more optimistic for this market.

"Gold exchange traded funds holdings continued to decline overnight but it does appear the falls are slowing."