Abstract
In 2006, many commodities of fuel and mineral resources showed high prices: e.g. some of the recorded highest prices were 8800 US/t of copper and 42850 US/t of nickel in LME, and 78.40 US$/bbl of WTI oil in NYMEX. Japanese mining companies, which got high income because of high prices of metals, carried out exploration and mining in South America. Japanese trading and petroleum companies, which also got high income, acquired interests in the world, especially in North Sea and northern Africa, and have started production of oil in North Sea, Azerbaijan, Qatar and Australia. One of technical topics is that an autonomous underwater vehicle (i.e. underwater robot) found a submarine lava plane and a submarine hydrothermal activity in Indian Sea.