3rd Degree

3rd Degree:
Woodside has signed an agreement with Shell to develop floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) technology at the Browse Basin project at James Price Point near Broome.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman stated that the FLNG has the "potential to commercialise the Browse resources in the earliest possible time frame."

Repeating the mistakes of JPP and lacking consultation and common sense

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has stopped the clock on the Commonwealth's environmental approval process for the James Price Point gas hub until he receives fresh details of any reworked State plans for the site.

The decision complicates the Barnett Government's attempt to rescue something from the wreckage of the decision by Woodside Petroleum and its joint venture partners to walk away from the controversial $40 billion land-based LNG hub, amid spiralling costs.

As part of this drive, Premier Colin Barnett yesterday reintroduced legislation into the WA Parliament to help develop massive gas reserves in the onshore Canning Basin, which are considered a possible Plan B for James Price Point-based exports.

Canning Basin development Bill introduced

• Legislation will allow for the development of the Canning Basin gas
• Domestic gas project the first priority
• Will ensure gas supplies for State’s future energy needs

Western Australia has taken another important step in ensuring the development of the vast gas resources of the Canning Basin.

Premier and State Development Minister Colin Barnett said the vast onshore gas resources of Canning Basin would be developed under the provisions of a Bill read into State Parliament today.

Mr Barnett said the Bill ratified the Natural Gas (Canning Basin Joint Venture) Agreement signed by the State Government with joint venture partners, Buru Energy Limited and Mitsubishi Corporation.

“This legislation will bring about the continued exploration for natural gas in the remote Canning Basin, the development of a gas pipeline to the Pilbara and ensure Western Australian consumers have first use of any gas discovered,” he said.

The Premier said the US Energy Information Administration estimated the Canning Basin unconventional gas resources at about 229 trillion cubic feet - about one and a half times WA’s currently identified offshore resources. 

The Canning Basin covers 530,000 sq. km stretching from the coast between Port Hedland and Broome, to the State’s eastern border.

The gas resources in this arid area are located between two and four kilometres below the ground’s surface.

“Tapping this vast resource will guarantee Western Australia’s domestic gas supplies well into the future,” Mr Barnett said.

“Because this gas is located onshore, it is also entirely owned by the State Government.

“This agreement ensures gas discoveries are rapidly brought into production, and that gas is delivered to the State’s domestic gas network, before any is exported.”

Once the domestic gas project is under development, the agreement provides for potential future gas supply for gas export.

Natural gas provides about 50 per cent of the State’s domestic electricity generation, and contributes to the production of key resource exports including iron ore, alumina, base metals and gold.

“This will also ensure that future energy-intensive mining opportunities and other manufacturing industries will benefit considerably from an expansion of WA’s domestic gas supply sources,” the Premier said.

“Natural gas is also an ideal partner for the State’s growing renewable energy production as a back-up in times of adverse weather conditions and peak demand.”

The Premier said the agreement provided additional security of tenure for 17,000 sq. km (1.7 million hectares) covered by five exploration permits held by the joint venture. These permits anchor the joint venture’s Canning Basin Domestic Gas Project, with the agreement facilitating further targeted gas exploration in these permits and the development of a pipeline to transport gas south to existing industrial areas.

If commercially viable gas resources are discovered, by mid-2016 the partners will be required to submit a plan for construction of the domestic gas project, including a pipeline connecting to the existing State gas network in the Pilbara.

Under the agreement, the partners are still required to obtain relevant State and Commonwealth environmental, safety, Aboriginal heritage and Native Title approvals for their exploration, development and infrastructure proposals. 

          Fact File

• The agreement, which is for an initial term of 25 years, with a possible 25 years extension, will:
• encourage investment in a significant exploration and evaluation program to determine the technical and economic viability of the natural gas resources
• enable the Government to set firm timetables for development of gas discoveries
• ensure domestic gas production and delivery occurs before any gas is supplied for export
• ensure an amount equivalent to 15% of any gas processed for export is reserved for domestic use
• make available for sale related products such as ethane, propane, butane and condensate, for the possible manufacture of chemicals or use as transport fuel
• defer relinquishment conditions of the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 for five key permits
• facilitate the development of pipelines and other infrastructure to deliver gas to the State’s domestic gas network
• This Bill was also introduced to Parliament in November last year but lapsed with the prorogation

Premier’s office - 6552 5000

 

Chaney says floating LNG processing most likely - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Chaney says floating LNG processing most likely - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
Mr Chaney has told the ABC that while other options will be evaluated, floating LNG is the most likely to succeed.

"The capital cost of the floating LNG option is considerably cheaper," he said.

Cousins floats new threat to Woodside | The Australian

Cousins floats new threat to Woodside | The Australian: "Well the royalty stream is going to be precisely the same with the floating option so the money will still be there. And if the aim all along was to help the Aboriginal people, then I assume they're going to do that just as they promised."

Mr Cousins said Woodside and the state government would be "hypocrites" if they did not go through with their compensation packages, given they had cited the need for greater investment in remote Aboriginal communities when arguing with environmental groups over the merits of the James Price Point plan.

Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman last week made clear the $1.5bn compensation package previously negotiated with indigenous claimants around James Price Point would not materialise in the event that the Browse gas was processed through alternative methods.

Woodside backs floating LNG for Browse | The Australian

Woodside backs floating LNG for Browse | The Australian:

Environs Kimberley welcomed Woodside's "common sense" and said even a smaller onshore plant at James Price Point would have been an environmental disaster.

"It's now clear that it would be economic and political madness for any other company to think about developing this site for heavy industry," Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said.

He also called on the state government to extend the Great Kimberley Marine Park, promised at the state election, to cover the sea at James Price Point.

Hey Campaigners!

Its time to party:  Thursday May 9th from 6.30pm at the Divers Tavern.

 

 

Dance the night away to say thanks to yourself and everyone else involved in getting the Campaign to where it is today. 

Entry $20 if you have a job, $10 if you don't.  Proceeds will help pay 

 

outstanding legal fees associated with the court cases.

There's several great bands including Naomi Pigram - more details next week.

So - your tasks for this week are to:

•  print out the poster and stick it on a notice board in your work place or favourite shop
• Tell our friends
• Plan to be there!

DAMOCRACY The Movie (English) - YouTube

DAMOCRACY The Movie (English) - YouTube:
DAMOCRACY: A documentary that debunks the myth of large-scale dams as clean energy and a solution to climate change. It records the priceless cultural and natural heritage the world would lose in the Amazon and Mesopotamia if two planned large-scale dams are built, Belo Monte dam in Brazil, and Ilisu dam in Turkey. DAMOCRACY is a story of resistance by the thousands of people who will be displaced, and a call to world to support their struggle. More info at http://www.damocracy.org

Josh Fox’s ‘Gasland’ Sequel Opens « Beaver County Blue

Josh Fox’s ‘Gasland’ Sequel Opens « Beaver County Blue: Gasland Part II continues Fox’s exploration by offering textured, in-depth profiles of half a dozen or so families in geographically diverse locations, from Australia, to Wyoming to Pennsylvania. Fox’s camera takes us into the homes of straight-talking folks who worked hard to secure their corner of the heartland.

Over the course of the film, we watch them move from disbelief to indignation to disillusionment, as they learn that no one’s willing to make industries accountable, even when a town loses its water. Texas homeowner Steve Lipsky built a million dollar plus dream home for his wife and family. With ample square footage, the Lipsky home was surrounded by sky-high picture windows, stunning views, and cascading pools. The customized bathroom came complete with an oversized whirlpool tub that now stands empty. Test results showed water so contaminated by nearby fracking activities that EPA officials privately advised the family never to drink it. But in a theme of civilian betrayal that recurs throughout the film, Lipsky claims that mid-level government regulators retracted their findings, rejected key opportunities to rein in the offending companies, and kept revelatory test results locked away from public access.

Shell Has No Case To Answer On Nigeria | newmatilda.com

Shell Has No Case To Answer On Nigeria | newmatilda.com:
On Thursday last week, the United States Supreme Court delivered a judgment that rewrites the rules on international human rights litigation.

In Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum the Court decided that an idiosyncratic US law dating from 1789, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), does not apply to events that occur in the territories of other states. The ATS has been used by victims of human rights abuses around the globe to seek a remedy for their harms in US courts.

This is a significant blow not only to the plaintiffs in this case. It is a blow to human rights enforcement more broadly. Human rights advocates are now left asking, "Where next?"

The Kiobel case addressed the right of a group of Nigerian nationals to sue Dutch, UK and Nigerian companies (known collectively as Shell) in US courts for aiding and abetting human rights violations — including torture, extrajudicial executions, and crimes against humanity. The plaintiffs were victims of violence directed against them by the Nigerian military in the 1990s for protesting the operations of the foreign companies in their communities.

On Wednesday, December 21, SkyTruth obtained a radar satellite image showing a major oil spill in the waters off the coast of Nigeria. The image, taken at approximately 9:30am local time on December 21, 2011 by the ASAR instrument aboard the Envisat satellite operated by the European Space Agency, reveals a slick covering 923 square kilometers (356 square miles). The image may be viewed and downloaded from the SkyTruth blog.

Celebrating the end of James Price Point but floating a future for Browse - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Celebrating the end of James Price Point but floating a future for Browse - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
What a difference two weeks makes. After very publicly declaring Browse was dumped, Woodside's taken the mega project off the back burner. The company now says it is committed to the development of the Browse basin.

Greenpeace activists board ship carrying Australian coal | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Greenpeace activists board ship carrying Australian coal | Environment | guardian.co.uk:
Speaking to the Guardian from on board the ship, 34-year-old Greenpeace activist Emma Giles said: "We've taken the action today because Australia is on track to almost double its coal exports in the next decade. Both major political parties have no solutions on the table. It is time to slow down the coal boom.

"Our leaders are failing us so it's up to us to take civil disobedience and to slow down and stop these coal ships. We are set to stay here as long as it takes."

Gas industry has itself to thank for higher prices - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Gas industry has itself to thank for higher prices - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

It is completely understandable that gas companies want to export overseas. The much higher gas prices means bigger profit and in our market economy, we assume that firms will pursue these higher profits. It is also understandable that gas companies will want to develop new gas projects. With the higher prices a lot of new projects will now be profitable.

But what is not OK is for APPEA (a lobby group of the gas producers) to blame concerned Australians for the gas price increases - price increases that are being driven by the industry's desire to sell gas overseas.

APPEA should spend more time looking into safety concerns about CSG and how they can fix them, and less time demonising ordinary Australians.

   Gasbag 16 April 2013 by redhanded8937

We are destroying the joint

We are destroying the joint:

 And the price we pay for despoiling our environment and trashing our heritage is high. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are connected to and influenced by our social and physical environments, our cultural landscape. People typically have strong emotional bonds to places and the communities in them. There is a now a great deal of evidence that our wellbeing depends in large measure on our relationship with our environment – broadly conceived, the relationships we have with the people around us and the natural and built environment we inhabit; if this cultural environment is destroyed or degraded or if people are prevented from enjoying it, their health and wellbeing deteriorate.

This is an edited extract from “We Are Destroying the Joint” by Carmen Lawrence in Destroying the Joint: Why Women Have to Change the World, edited by Jane Caro, published by UQP.

Munduruku People of Brazil Celebrate Land Victory, Brazilian Indians Storm Congress - | Intellihub.com

Munduruku People of Brazil Celebrate Land Victory, Brazilian Indians Storm Congress - | Intellihub.com:
 In October 2012 the Munduruku village known of Teles Pires, located on a river of the same name, ordered researchers inspecting the site of the São Luíz do Tapajós dam out. A month later, on November 7th 2012 a helicopter and dozens of men, armed with machine guns and assault rifles, attacked Teles Pires.

Men, women, children and elder villagers were teargassed, wrestled to the ground and made to lie on the ground. The village radio and phone were destroyed as well as memory cards, phones, and cameras. The people of the community were told they could not speak to each other in their own language.

The Jirau hydroelectric dam will feature more giant turbines than any other dam in the world. The power lines are estimated to cross 2,550 km of forest. The dam, said to be completed by 2015, is one of many dams being planned in the world’s largest and most biodiverse forest.

Munduruku People of Brazil Celebrate Land Victory, Brazilian Indians Storm Congress - | Intellihub.com

Munduruku People of Brazil Celebrate Land Victory, Brazilian Indians Storm Congress - | Intellihub.com:

In October 2012 the Munduruku village known of Teles Pires, located on a river of the same name, ordered researchers inspecting the site of the São Luíz do Tapajós dam out. A month later, on November 7th 2012 a helicopter and dozens of men, armed with machine guns and assault rifles, attacked Teles Pires.

Men, women, children and elder villagers were teargassed, wrestled to the ground and made to lie on the ground. The village radio and phone were destroyed as well as memory cards, phones, and cameras. The people of the community were told they could not speak to each other in their own language.

The Jirau hydroelectric dam will feature more giant turbines than any other dam in the world. The power lines are estimated to cross 2,550 km of forest. The dam, said to be completed by 2015, is one of many dams being planned in the world’s largest and most biodiverse forest.

Woodside still committed to Browse

Woodside still committed to Browse:

Chief executive Peter Coleman said Woodside would now propose a work program with its joint venture partners for the remaining 20 months of the retention leases.

"While our announcement signals the closing of a chapter, it is by no means the end of Woodside's plans to develop the world-class Browse resource," Mr Coleman told the company's annual general meeting in Perth.
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"I am confident that we can begin basis design work on new concepts in the near future."

Shareholders overwhelmingly approved the company's 2012 remuneration report, which included Mr Coleman's total annual pay of $7.3 million, including almost $5 million in bonuses.

Chairman Michael Chaney said the environmental protest against the Browse gas plant had had "zero" influence on the board's decision on Browse.

He said there were "some dollar costs" involved in dealing with the protest as part of $1.5 billion spent on the project.

Check it out - the Kimberley was projected on to the Sydney Opera House last night as part of the Samsung Opera House Projections competition!

Thanks to Glenn Walker for the gorgeous picture.

DO THE MATH

Do the Math: A Movie to Spark a Movement

The fossil fuel industry is killing us.

They have five times the amount of coal, gas and oil that is safe to burn -- and they are planning on burning it all. Left to their own devices, they'll push us past the brink of cataclysmic disaster -- life as we know it will be irrevocably altered forever. Unless we rise up and fight back.

Do The Math chronicles follows the climate crusader Bill McKibben as he works with a rising global movement in a David-vs-Goliath fight to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis.

This growing groundswell of climate activists is going after the fossil fuel industry directly, energizing a movement like the ones that overturned the great immoral institutions of the past century, such as Apartheid in South Africa. The film follows people who are putting their bodies on the line the Keystone XL Pipeline and leading universities and institutions to divest in the corporate polluters hellbent on burning fossil fuels no matter the cost.

The film also features a veritable who's who of the climate movement including Dr. James Hansen (Director, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies), Naomi Klein (Author, The Shock Doctrine), Lester Brown (President, Earth Policy Institute), Michael Brune (Executive Director, Sierra Club), Majora Carter (Founder, Sustainable South Bronx), Jessy Tolkan (Co-Executive Director of Citizen Engagement Laboratory), Phil Radford (Executive Director of Greenpeace), James Gustave Speth (Co-Founder of Natural Resources Defense Council), Mike Tidwell (Executive Director, CCAN), Van Jones (CNN Correspondent & Author, The Green Collar Economy), Bobby Kennedy Jr. (President, Waterkeeper Alliance ), among others.

Nowhere to Run To: A Global Resistance to Toxic Extraction Industry? | The Dreamer Propulsion Project

Nowhere to Run To: A Global Resistance to Toxic Extraction Industry? | The Dreamer Propulsion Project: On April 12, 2013, the province of British Columbia announced four new proposals for LNG export terminals on the north coast. One of the four companies involved, Australian based Woodside Petroleum, announced on the very same day that they were shelving plans for a $47 billion dollar LNG terminal in Australia.

The reason Woodside gave for cancelling this project, which was the largest proposed construction project on the horizon for that country, was that the economics were no longer feasible. Nothing I’ve come across in the media references these two projects together, and so the company has not publically stated whether the Canadian proposal had anything to do with this decision.