Monday, December 3, 2012

Woodside extends global gas push

So interesting that Woodside can not manage a small remote Australian community of Broome and the fact that their security force were made fools of time and time again with lockons, and breaches to their tower and equipment, over the last two years. They do not have the security skills, even two grandmothers made idiots of Woodside when they lockedon earlier this year to a van that forced the workers and the convoy to return to Broome. One women and her dog has also managed to turn back Woodside convoys. Get real Woodside, Israel is a completely different story, its for keeps.

The Australian-
WOODSIDE Petroleum chief Peter Coleman is bullish about the company's financial heft and its ability to develop both its newly acquired ...

The low price tag was attributed in part to the security risks associated with building a multi-billion-dollar LNG facility in such a politically sensitive part of the world, but Mr Coleman said he was comfortable with the challenges an LNG plant in Israel would present.

"We've made our own assessment of the security risk. We have spoken not only to Israeli security forces and we've viewed the potential sites for the onshore facilities and made our own risk assessment around that. We feel that's manageable and we also feel that the investment market will see that the risk is quite manageable," Mr Coleman said.


Woodside poised to take punt on $1.3b Israeli gasfield
Sydney Morning Herald-

Woodside takes giant strides
The Australian Financial Review-


8 comments:

  1. http://www.smh.com.au/business/woodside-poised-to-take-punt-on-13b-israeli-gasfield-20121203-2ar1s.html

    According to a Bloomberg report earlier this year, Hezbollah said in December 2010 that it would not allow Israel to ''plunder Lebanon's maritime assets''.

    Asked about security risks, Mr Coleman said Woodside had been to Israel ''on two occasions''.

    ''We've made our own assessment of security risk. We have spoken not only to Israeli security forces but also reviewed potential sites for onshore facilities and made our own risk assessment around that. We feel that's manageable.''

    ........

    Woodside would publish the terms agreed with the Israeli government, but Mr Coleman said the country was ''quite motivated to ensure we have stability and fiscal terms and investment terms to make us all long-term investors''.

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

    Israeli security forces,and the country quite motivated to ensure stability...

    Labour costs competitive.....

    Is that before or after the "Danger Money" bonus was factored in?
    And if Woodside thought their workers in Broome were in such danger to warrant SAS protection....what can they expect at the worlds riskiest address?

    Their own Carrier Task Force?

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.theage.com.au/business/bg-group-holds-the-line-on-costs-20121203-2ar06.html

    .....BG was drilling about 50 coal seam gas wells in Queensland a month, and had about 1400 land access agreements in place, he said.

    ''We're now very confident about the cost base we have here and delivering this both on time and on the new budget,'' Mr Houston said.

    Advertisement

    In May, BG said the cost of the two-train QCLNG project had risen 19 per cent to $US20.4 billion, mainly due to the high Australian dollar.

    Mr Houston said a third LNG train was usually the best to develop, enjoying a cost advantage over earlier trains because additional tanks, jetties and other common infrastructure did not need to be built.

    BG's recent gas sale to China's CNOOC included an option to take 25 per cent of a third train at QCLNG and Chinese gas demand was ''almost insatiable'', Mr Houston said.

    ''We'd like to get T3 done,'' he said.

    Mr Houston denied BG was short of gas in Australia, saying the company had a resource of 23 trillion cubic feet including proven and probable reserves of 9.9 tcf. BG believes further exploration will yield an additional 1.2 tcf of coal seam gas in the Surat Basin, another 4.7 tcf in the Bowen Basin, and another 2.3 tcf in tight sands between 2-4 kilometres deep, also in the Bowen.

    At a cost of more than $US12 per million British thermal units (mmbtu), delivered into Tokyo Bay, BG viewed Australia as the most expensive source of gas, above the average of $US10/mmbtu for LNG from Mozambique, the US Gulf coast, Canada, Russia or Alaska. Construction costs of LNG plant were $US500-600 per tonne of capacity in the US, but were $US1200-1400 per tonne in Australia.

    ......

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL - who would have guessed this?

    Premier Colin Barnett has dared the Gillard Government to support local jobs by opposing floating LNG technology for the $40 billion Browse project, prompting Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to call for a truce in public bickering over the issue.

    But in a sign the contentious gas project north of Broome is set to be the next local content flashpoint for the union movement, Mr Barnett has been backed by his previous critics, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, which said it was "traitorous" to support FLNG.

    In an interview with _WestBusiness _, Mr Barnett said the prime reason he wanted Browse gas to come ashore was so Australian industry could participate in construction.

    "If it is built offshore, it will be built in the Philippines or Korea or somewhere with no local jobs at all . . . that would be totally unacceptable to Australians," he said.

    "I can hardly imagine a Federal Labor government agreeing to total offshore construction of what is Australia's natural resource."

    AMWU State secretary Steve McCartney said yesterday that in a bid to stop Australians watching the project's benefits "from the beach", unions would fight hard to stop the technology on Browse.

    "The role of governments and ministers like Martin Ferguson is to build wealth for the country and build skills that take the country on to a better future," Mr McCartney said.

    "Anyone that supports floating (LNG) is a traitor to their country."

    The giant floating platforms, one of which has already been sanctioned by the Federal Government for the smaller Prelude field, are being pushed by Woodside's joint venture partner in the development, Royal Dutch Shell, as a "saviour" against rising WA's construction costs. Shell yesterday announced it was backing a new professorial chair at UWA to support research in the offshore sector.

    The issue has sparked a running public spat over the past week, after Mr Barnett said that the technology carried more risks than a land-based venture, and that it was his right to argue for the best interests of taxpayers over shareholders.

    Browse's operator Woodside, which unveiled its latest international ambitions in Israel yesterday, has been caught in the middle.

    It says it is committed to an obligatory review of the financial viability of the site by June, although another JV partner, BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers, took a thinly veiled swipe last week at the inflexible lease conditions set by Federal and State governments.

    Mr Ferguson urged calm on all sides yesterday.
    "I have no intention of engaging in ongoing commentary on what the joint venture partners might present to the Government, as I am a decision maker and I will not prejudice this issue," he said.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 2 reasons that is laughable.

    1. Would we insist Quantas only fly airplanes that are made in Australia.Or only ships made in Australia can use our ports.Or for that matter only Floating Production platforms (and there are many) made here can process oil and gas?
    NO.

    2.The last paragraph re Ferguson.The only reason this is happening is because Ferguson has already prejudiced the issue,and no doubt will continue to do so.

    It is incredible that after all the arguments about companies not wanting to do business here we have the unions and a Liberal Premier carrying on like this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1400 responses to the EPA on Woodsides derived proposal.

    Vogel of course will dismiss them all as per his masters wishes.

    Rumours abound lately of the Premiers Office leaning very heavilly on the EPA - it even made the papers.

    None of this,it seems,is considered illegal or corrupt in WA right now.Business as usual in a State of Corruption.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A few headlines from todays crazy world of energy :

    Shell's Arctic Oil Spill Gear "Crushed Like a Beer Can" in Simple Test

    The containment dome -- which Shell sought to assure federal regulators would be adequate to cap a blowout in the event of emergency at its Arctic operations -- failed miserably in tests. The dome "breached like a whale" after malfunctioning, and then sank 120 feet. When the crew of the Arctic Challenger recovered the 20-foot-tall containment dome, they found that it had "crushed like a beer can" under pressure.

    It failed under very calm, tranquil conditions in the best time of year up here in the Pacific Northwest. If it can’t handle the best we have here, I really have my doubts it can handle even a little adversity in the Arctic.

    ....

    Fiji oil spill.

    "Our lands and sea were much healthier before this especially our mangroves, but now they're being poisoned by the oil," Mr Balawa said.

    He said at this time of the year in particular-the numbers of small fish and crabs were quite high. "But this year, we have noticed that there is hardly any fish around," he explained.

    Efforts to get a response from the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) proved futile.

    The qoliqoli is made up of 22 fish traps which are monitored by Mr Balawa.

    The fish caught in the traps are used to feed the villagers within the settlement and are sometimes sold to make money for the village.

    "This has been difficult to do because we have found that many of the fish have been poisoned or our traps just ruined from all the oil soaked up in them," he said.

    Not only have the food sources been affected, but the surrounding mangroves covering the settlements of Muaivuso, Nabaka and Namakala have also shown signs of substantial reduction. The World Wide Fund for Nature South Pacific (WWF South Pacific) said the situation caused much harm to the environment both directly and indirectly.

    .....

    ReplyDelete
  7. cont...

    Dec 4 (LNGJ) - A total of 20 companies have applied to the US Energy Department to export LNG from planned projects. Full listing: Sabine Pass Liquefaction; Freeport LNG; Lake Charles Exports; Carib Energy; Dominion Cove Point LNG; Jordan Cove; Cameron LNG; Freeport LNG; Gulf Coast LNG Export; Gulf LNG Liquefaction; LNG Development Co. (Oregon LNG); SB Power Solutions Inc; Southern LNG; Excelerate Liquefaction; Golden Pass Products; Cheniere Marketing; Main Pass Energy Hub; CE FLNG; Waller LNG Services; and Pangea LNG

    ...

    Dec 4 (LNGJ) - China's Ministry of Land and Resources said it would soon announce the winners of its second auction for shale-gas exploration rights. The second Chinese tender was held in October 25. The future and scale of Chinese shale-gas development will impact LNG prices in the years ahead.

    ...

    Dec 4 (LNGJ) - A group led by Talisman Energy of Canada may have enough feed-gas for a third LNG project in Papua New Guinea, the Oceania nation's Energy Minister William Duma told the 12th PNG Mining and Petroleum Investment Conference in the Sydney Hilton Hotel in Australia. PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill told the conference his nation was looking forward to the $19 billion ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG project coming on stream in 2014

    ...

    UK major BP said it was probably involved in a sufficient number of LNG projects for now and would be concentrating on other energy developments apart from the liquefaction ventures it is already committed to such as the expansion of the Tangguh plant in Indonesia.

    ...

    The BG Group-led Queensland Curtis coal-seam-gas-to-LNG project in Australia is currently employing almost 9,000 people and investment in the venture was now around A$11.4 billion ($US11.9Bln).

    ...

    Almost 80 LNG carriers are currently under construction, with Norwegian and Greek companies awaiting the majority of vessels, as the energy majors and portfolio players such as BG, Shell and others take outside charters to back up their own large fleets.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 2 stories breaking :

    1/ABC reporting the number of submissions now at over 1700 !!!!!!!!!!!!

    2/A small good news story - that should be BIGGER.

    Mining activity will be prohibited within 72sq km of the Horizontal Waterfalls – a stunning natural phenomenon north-east of Derby attracting upwards of 20,000 tourists a year – under a new State Government mining exemption.

    Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore said the West Kimberley site would now be afforded more protection than national park status.

    He said pending exploration applications in the area had been voluntarily withdrawn by industry operators as a show of support for the State’s move.

    In 2011, Pegasus Metals Limited drew controversy by carrying out low-impact drilling works on a tenement about 4.3km north-west of the site with approval from the Department.

    Mr Moore then revealed the Department was discussing with Pegasus the possibility of a second exploration licence, which includes the waterfalls and adjacent areas, being withdrawn.

    Mr Moore told State Parliament if that did not eventuate, the application would be refused.

    Last month, Pegasus Metals director Michael Fotios said he had initiated discussions with the Department to voluntarily give up the permit.

    He said Pegasus had not intended to explore for copper in the area and the company would focus its future exploration activity inland from the coast.
    The Horizontal Waterfalls has also been nominated for inclusion on the Register of State Geoheritage Sites.

    ReplyDelete