Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Barnett's Browse warning - The West Australian

Barnett's Browse warning - The West Australian:
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Premier Colin Barnett has opened a new front in his campaign for a land-based gas hub at James Price Point, warning that rival floating LNG technology proposed by Shell poses greater environmental risks similar to the Gulf of Mexico petroleum spill.

Despite approval from the State's environmental watchdog this month, green opposition to Woodside's $40 billion Browse gas development near Broome has been fierce. Protesters have been up in arms about issues, including the damage to the coastline near James Price Point and dinosaur footprints as well as potential harm to marine life including transitory whales.

8 comments:

  1. Barnett kicks the hornets nest.Some more facial damage for the Premier.


    Shell's Pickard says FLNG could be 'saviour' of Australia's LNG industry

    by: Paul Garvey
    From:The Australian
    November 27, 20123:31PM

    SHELL Australia head Ann Pickard has hit back at West Australian Premier Colin Barnett's criticisms of the company's floating liquefied natural gas technology, with Ms Pickard describing FLNG as the potential "saviour" of Australia's LNG industry.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Deep Offshore Technology conference in Perth this morning, Ms Pickard defended the design of the FLNG technology after Mr Barnett raised concerns about the environmental safety of the revolutionary process.

    “(FLNG) is designed around safety; safety is absolutely paramount. Protecting the environment, protecting people is absolutely paramount in the design so obviously I disagree,” Ms Pickard said when asked about Mr Barnett’s comments.

    More recently, the oil and gas industry has been abuzz with talk Shell could propose FLNG technology as an alternative means of developing the Woodside-led Browse gas field off northern WA.

    Woodside and the WA government are pushing for the development of Browse through an LNG plant at James Price Point, north of Broome, but the project is forecast to cost over $40 billion and has already attracted protests from environmental groups.

    Talk the partners in Browse could ultimately pursue FLNG as a means of developing the project instead of the James Price Point plan has provoked the ire of Mr Barnett.

    The WA premier was quoted this morning as saying a land-based LNG plant was environmentally safer than a floating LNG plant, pointing to the recent disasters at the Macondo and Montara deepwater drilling platforms.

    Ms Pickard noted both those incidents involved drilling, which would not be a part of the FLNG technology.

    ........

    Barnett doesn't know the difference between a drill rig and a production platform - let alone a rig and a FLNG.

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  2. Ever wondered why we need a canal in WA?

    ..

    The agency responsible for managing Perth's most important drinking supply source - the Gnangara groundwater system - has admitted it does not know how much water from the aquifer is squandered.

    Despite overseeing the annual abstraction of hundreds of billions of litres from the Gnangara by major and backyard bore owners, the department conceded it had no idea how much was lost through leaks or evaporation.

    The admission comes amid figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that 16 per cent, or 99 billion litres, of all distributed water in WA was lost in the 12 months to June 30, 2011.

    ..

    Meanwhile, the ABS figures show that although household water consumption in WA was almost DOUBLE the Australian average, prices in this State were among the lowest in the country.
    According to the bureau, A TYPICAL PERSON in WA used about 132,000 litres in 2010-11 compared with the NATIONAL AVERAGE of 75,000 litres per person.

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  3. I dont have a sub,but sure to be posted somewhere later.This is really getting hot.


    Barnett slams Shell as LNG tensions rise

    Barnett slams Shell LNG plan

    WA Premier Colin Barnett has confirmed that Shell is pushing to develop the Browse gasfield through its floating LNG solution.

    .............

    Out of Africa, into Myanmar: Woodside eyes new frontiers

    WOODSIDE Petroleum chief Peter Coleman has ruled out investing in east African oil and gas but is considering Myanmar.

    ..............

    WOODSIDE Petroleum has joined forces with the University of Western Australia to fund a postgraduate scholarship in Myanmar

    ..............

    AUSTRALIA should focus on turning Perth into a global energy technology hub, the head of oil and gas producer Woodside says.

    Chief executive Peter Coleman said resources and agriculture would still make a big contribution to the Australian economy this century, but Australia's skills and ingenuity would allow the nation to succeed in the Asia-Pacific region.

    ..

    He also used the example of floating liquefied natural gas as an innovative contributor in the resources industry. Woodside is yet to make a final decision about proceeding with its Browse gas project in Western Australia, amid speculation partner Shell favours a floating LNG option.

    While the nation had benefited from Asia's rapid growth, it had not been by design, he said. ''There's never been a more important time than now for Australia to complete its transition to a high-innovation, highly productive economy.''

    ...............

    THE world is on the cusp of a "tipping point" into dangerous climate change, according to new data gathered by scientists measuring methane leaking from the Arctic permafrost and a report presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.

    "The permafrost carbon feedback is irreversible on human time scales," says the report, Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost. "Overall, these observations indicate that large-scale thawing of permafrost may already have started."

    While countries the size of Australia tally up their greenhouse emissions in hundreds of millions of tonnes, the Arctic's stores are measured in tens of billions.

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    Replies
    1. Coleman "preparing the ground."

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    2. Barnett not going without a fight,he reportedly has told Woodside to take another extension,work on getting costs down,and build at JPP a few years down the track.

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    3. Barnett calls for Browse co-operation

      Premier Colin Barnett has called on the broader Browse Basin gas industry to shoulder more of the load in developing a land-backed processing hub at James Price Point, saying they could help cap surging capital costs and unlock new fields.

      In a sign of his determination to see off threats to his preferred site, including Royal Dutch Shell's floating LNG technology, Mr Barnett also said he was "hypothetically" open to extending the Woodside consortium's retention lease until construction costs fell.

      "The capital costs are high and there are concerns about it, that's a valid concern," Mr Barnett told _WestBusiness _.

      "But the solution to that is for Browse to be bigger or to have two projects to come on together, which solves that problem by sharing infrastructure. It is within the remit of the industry to solve it."

      Mr Barnett nominated recent discoveries by Santos and Conoco Phillips in the Browse Basin as prime candidates for participation in the James Price Point hub.

      Santos chief executive David Knox last week made a similar call for industry collaboration to lower capital costs or risk losing LNG projects offshore.

      However, Woodside's consortium partners are divided over how to develop the remote $40 billion project, with Shell pushing FLNG as a way to avoid the huge cost blowouts experienced on Chevron's $43 billion Gorgon venture. The US giant is expected to unveil an eye-watering cost increase of up to $60 billion within the next fortnight.

      Yesterday Shell Australia chairwoman Ann Pickard described FLNG as the "saviour" of the sector from high costs, and rejected Mr Barnett's criticism that FLNG posed added environmental risks along the lines of the Montara disaster. "It's designed around safety, safety is absolutely paramount, protecting the environment, protecting the people is absolutely paramount in the design, so obviously I disagree," she said.

      Last week the Chamber of Minerals and Energy forecast that WA's resource construction workforce had peaked, holding out hope that project costs may fall in coming years. But this may be too late for Woodside's project. Under their retention lease obligations, the joint venture partners must decide by June whether the project is financially viable.

      Mr Barnett said he had not been approached for an extension.

      But he said that if there was a proposal to delay the venture by a few years to allow for some heat to be taken out of costs once Gorgon had been built, with a renewed commitment to a land-based solution at James Price Point, "his government would look at it".

      He argues that the State's and industry's long-term interests are aligned with the land-backed solution.
      Environmentalists are opposed to the Woodside site near Broome, and say FLNG offers greater protection for pristine coastlines.

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  4. Re the scandal and corruption over at the NNTT,the Australian has removed Cleary's article ,for some reason,but it is still available here :

    http://yindjibarndi.org.au/yindjibarndi/?p=2830

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  5. GREAT NEWS FOR FMG :4th insider blows whistle on FMG

    http://yindjibarndi.org.au/yindjibarndi/?p=2873#.ULVYZ4obEKc.facebook

    SMALL EXCERPT :

    3. Bruce Woodley said most of the Wirlu-murra were keen to bridge the divide between themselves and the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, however he said Mr Gallagher opposes this: “Michael (Gallagher) manipulates some of our members and has a couple of them doing his miserable work arguing us down even if we are the majority of the Board in favour of a resolution or proposition.”

    4.Regarding a conciliation meeting held in early 2012, Bruce Woodley said, “Earlier this year when we tried to make peace between Yindjibarndi people (YAC and Wirlu-murra) … we met at the basketball courts without white fellas there but Bruce (Thomas) kept on driving by and calling out to us if we were alright and for the women to leave and come back.” (Bruce Thomas is the Wirlu-murra’s Business Manager, a non-Aboriginal person.)

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