Photo Damian Kelly
ACTION OF THE DAY
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A score of ANZ Banking Group machines sprawled across six capital cities were plastered with "out of order" signs on Sunday after campaigners launched their latest bid to draw attention to the bank's funding of the coal industry.
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Catalyst tonight just brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWell done to all of you.
John Butler and Bob Brown are on ABC Breakfast (TV) Friday morning to talk about the concert.
I know I'm always posting these but the race to get gas into Asia is threatening the Kimberley - and of course other raw materials for this Asian Century.Anything that stands to undermine this crazy rush is interesting,after all our Planet is now beyond doubt living on borrowed time.
ReplyDeletehttp://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/260307-energy-firms-proceed-with-alaska-to-asia-natural-gas-pipeline-plan
Three energy producers agreed on a plan Wednesday for a pipeline that would send Alaskan natural gas originally intended for the Lower 48 states to Japan and South Korea.
Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP and pipeline firm TransCanada Corp. set a timeline for constructing one of the world’s largest natural gas pipelines, a $65 billion endeavor.
The plan is for the pipeline to bring Alaska’s North Slope natural gas reserves to a port in the state's southern coast. It would then be liquefied for tanker travel so it could be exported to Asia.
The project puts the administration’s role in exporting natural gas back in focus, as it would need to approve pacts with South Korea and Japan.
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Energy majors advance Alaska LNG project and see a world-scale production plant
Thursday, 04 October 2012
ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP and TransCanada have signalled progress in their studies for an LNG project in Alaska to monetize North Slope natural gas and the venture could become one of the biggest in the world.
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Maybe Woodside could bugger off to the eastern Med?
The study, collating existing scientific data, says that geological similarities indicate that reserves offshore Crete may match the prolific Levantine Basin where recent Israeli and Cypriot discoveries are clustered.
It points to strategically significant reserves in Greek waters south of Crete in the range of 3.5 trillion cubic metres (Tcm), enough to cover over six years of EU gas demand, and the equivalent of about 1.5 billion barrels of oil.
While it will take years to explore and develop any offshore gas sector, Greece has launched a licencing round and has commissioned a seismic survey company to pin down the extent of hydrocarbon deposits. The results are expected in mid-2013.
Presenting their findings, study authors Antonis Foscolos, Elias Konofagos and Nikos Lygeros said they expected the reserves to generate £464 billion in state earnings over 25 years.
"We feel this is a very conservative figure," Konofagos, whose Athens-based company Flow Energy informally advises the government on energy strategy, told Reuters
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Talk some time back of the North Sea oil and gas being dead and tens of thousands of Brits heading downunder to work must have been wrong.
GLOBAL investors are targeting the North Sea oil industry and creating a new jobs boom.
Soaring interest in the vital sector is a massive turnaround from the dark days when Chancellor George Osborne was blamed for almost killing off investment in one fell swoop.
Leading energy firms were told yesterday that thanks to new Treasury measures, oil and gas reserves in UK waters are now being viewed more as a long-term asset than a short-term cash flow for the Exchequer.
The turnaround was hailed last night as great news for the north and north-east economy.
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Could be some spare workers from iron ore if this continues.
Total iron ore shipments from Port Hedland in September were 19.9 million tonnes, down from 22.8 million in August and 20 million in September last year.
BHP Billiton is the port's biggest user, followed by Fortescue Metals Group.
Japan imported 2.1 million tonnes in September, versus 2.4 million tonnes in August. September shipments to South Korea were 1.9 million tonnes against 2.7 million tonnes in August.
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People whinging about Aussie workers and productivity should look at this,
Traffic chaos to cost $20bn by 2020, says Transurban
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/15048874/airport-congestion-costs-businesses-dear/
DeleteAirline executives have indicated that a one-hour delay for a fly-in, fly-out trip could cost the resources industry $50,000 to $80,000.
"Given the size of WA and its isolation, the airport is a critical piece of infrastructure," Mr Buswell said. "If they do not add another runway, it will become an economic blocker."
He said the situation was so bad executives were leaving a day earlier to ensure they made meetings on time.
"I also have people telling me they now prefer to drive to regional destinations because of the problems and delays at Perth Airport," he said.
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While acknowledging plans for $750 million upgrades to terminals and facilities, Mr Buswell said the airport must urgently address its runway capacity.
"It is no good building new terminals if you can't take off and land," he said.
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The airport's growth has soared an unprecedented 40 per cent since 2008 to 13.5 million passengers, including all FIFO charters.
Plane movements have jumped 32 per cent to 142,000.
There have been delays of up to two hours to land or take off at Perth and delays of 30 minutes have become standard for the morning peak between 6am and 8.30am.
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The airport is also now looking at building a second parallel runway costing over $600 million.
How would you like to live in the shadow of one of these horrors?
ReplyDeleteThe way nuclear power is going post Fukishima uranium mines will be going out of business fast.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/nuke-safety-upgrades-needed-across-europe/story-fn3dxix6-1226488929169
Saying many of the EU's 132 reactors failed even to meet international safety standards, Oettinger confirmed leaked reports that bringing plants up to scratch could cost anywhere between 10 billion and 25 billion euros ($A12.79bn-$A31.47bn).
The stress tests, the commissioner added, were "not a blank cheque" but "an incitement to action" to ensure the highest possible standards are applied soon.
"We would expect these steps to be taken immediately," he said as he urged governments to draw up timetables for action by year's end, with Brussels to review in June 2014 whether plants have been upgraded by then in line with safety requirements.
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South Korea has shut down two nuclear reactors at separate plants after apparent malfunctions.
The government is reassuring people there is no threat of a radiation leak.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-05/blue-whale/4296874
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Government says a scientific project that will track blue whales by sound makes a mockery of Japan's lethal scientific program.
The blue whale was driven close to extinction during the early 1900s when 250,000 of the animals were killed.
Scientists hope to more accurately determine how many blue whales are left in the Southern Ocean.
Dr Mike Double from the Australian Marine Mammal Centre says scientists will use a device called a sonobuoy to pick up blue whale sounds allowing research ships to then track and identify individual whales.
He says blue whales call to each other frequently and loudly.
"When they start calling they can call for many hours at a time but we don't really know why they are doing this," he said.
"I mean these animals are designed for long distance communication where they're communicating a lot on the feeding ground which other whales don't do."
The device will also allow researchers to monitor the whales.
Environment Minister Tony Burke has applauded the project and says it again brings into question Japan's methods of scientific research.
AUSTRALIA'S EMPIRE - MORE TORTURE,MURDER AND GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-04/detachment-88-implicated-in-crackdown-on-independence-movement/4296082
An Australian-funded police unit in West Papua has again been implicated in recent crackdowns on the region's independence movement.
The region has been the scene of violence and tension in 2012, with independence leaders arrested, beaten and killed, and police confronted by unruly and angry demonstrations.
In June, Indonesian soldiers went on a rampage in the highland's town of Wamena, a stronghold of the West Papua National Committee, which is known as KNPB.
Last weekend police were again targeting the area, raiding the homes and offices of KNPB members.
Eight people were arrested and witnesses, including KNPB leader Victor Yeimo, say once again the Australian-trained and funded police unit Detachment 88 was involved.
"When they arrest the KNPB brothers in Wamena, we saw Detachment 88 with one car, and another car with police, joined in by TNI (the Indonesian military)," Mr Yeimo said.
Indonesian police accuse those arrested of making bombs and claim to have found explosives during the raid.
Mr Yeimo rejects that and says his group is being framed as terrorists to justify Detachment 88's presence.
In West Papua, the Institute for Human Rights Advocacy, known as ELSHAM, has studied the arrests and suspects the explosives recovered by police were planted.
It is a view that is supported in Australia by advocates of the West Papuan cause.
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As for Mr Yeimo, he is pushing for the release of the eight activists arrested on the weekend.
And with his supporters in Australia, he is pressuring the Australian Government to rethink its funding for Detachment 88.
"The Papuans will be pretty much living like prisoners in our own land, where our movement, what we do will be censored, will be followed, will be monitored," Mr Kareni said.
"There's no room for democracy at all."
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THOSE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS - IF WE WERE TO SUBSTITUTE "BROOME AND DAMPIER PENINSULAR RESIDENTS" FOR "THE PAPUANS" WE WOULD HAVE THE WOODSIDE STORY.
The concert for the Kimberley was fantastic - all the performers were brilliant - thought Albert Wiggan was a real surprise.Great.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/anz-warns-300bn-mining-projects-face-threat-as-commodity-prices-fall/story-e6frg9df-1226489479937
ReplyDeleteSLUMPING commodities prices and a flight of global investment to quality projects mean up to two-thirds of the nation's 950 planned and current resources and infrastructure projects may not be realised, potentially slashing more than $300 billion of development spending and 150,000 jobs, according to ANZ.
In the wake of lowered assumptions about Chinese and global growth, resources developers are now reassessing the huge number of boom-time proposals as cashflows shrink, funding becomes scarcer and shareholders call for restraint.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/10/did-exxon-pay-torturers?page=1
ReplyDeleteDid ExxonMobil Pay Torturers?
The oil giant has long said it has no responsibility for atrocities committed by the government soldiers it hired to protect its plant in Indonesia. Now the issue could be headed to the Supreme Court.
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This man, who was killed two years after the lawsuit was filed, claimed that an attack by ExxonMobil's security personnel resulted in the loss of his hand and eye. Terry Collingsworth
Even in the dry legalese of a court complaint, the account of John Doe III is not for the faint of heart:
In the summer of 2000, soldiers detained him while he was visiting a refugee camp. They shot him "in three places on his leg," then "tortured him for several hours." The soldiers "broke his kneecap, smashed his skull, and burned him with cigarettes." After he was taken to a hospital to treat his wounds, he was returned to this captors, who held him for roughly a month and "tortured him regularly."
This was the Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia, at the height of a bloody civil war. Such accounts were commonplace. But in this case, according to the complaint, the man's captors were not just any soldiers. They were "ExxonMobil security personnel." And now, more than a decade later, ExxonMobil has been ordered to stand trial in a human rights lawsuit.
In June 2001, John Doe III and 10 other civilian neighbors of ExxonMobil's Arun natural gas facility filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil in federal district court in Washington, DC. In John Doe v. ExxonMobil, (PDF) the villagers charge the company with complicity in torture, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killings allegedly committed by Indonesian soldiers it hired to provide security.
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2012/10/partners-release-alaska-gas-pipeline-lng-facilities-cost-estimate.html
ReplyDeleteThe proposed 800-mile natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to a planned gas liquefaction plant and export terminal in south-central Alaska would be “a megaproject of unprecedented scale and challenge” costing $45-65 billion, said three ANS producers and TransCanada Corp.
It also would consume up to 1.7 million tons of steel, employ 15,000 workers at its construction peak, and establish a permanent workforce of more than 1,000 in Alaska by its completion in 5-6 years, according to ExxonMobil Corp., ConocoPhillips
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CERTAINLY IS A LOT OF PRESSURE TO MOVE AWAY FROM THE OIL LINKED PRICE FOR LNG.AS THIS REPORT SHOWS - CUSTOMERS ARE NOW HARD TO FIND.
Oct 4 (LNGJ) - Apache Corp., the lead developer of the Kitimat LNG project on the Pacific coast of Canada, has not signed up any long-term customers yet as it is holding out for oil-indexed contracts to underpin the multi-billion dollar venture for 20 years or more. The other shareholders are EnCana Corp. and EOG Resources.
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http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/arbil-natural-gas-to-lower-prices.aspx?pageID=238&nID=31791&NewsCatID=348
“Turkey needs [more] energy, particularly natural gas. Prices will be to the benefit of end users if Turkey puts the gas from northern Iraq and the Mediterranean to use,” he said in his speech at the fifth International Energy Congress and Fair.
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“The cost of oil exploration at sea is between $30 and $60 depending on the depth. But it is only $5 to extract oil in Iraq. That’s why all the oil majors are interested in Iraq. The probability of finding oil in Iraq is higher than any other place in the world. The probability to find oil in country, which is known to have reserves, is about 20 to 25 percent, while it is nearly 80 percent in Iraq,” he said.
Turkey’s natural gas needs for the next 50 years can be supplied from northern Iraq, according to Sepil.
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NO WONDER CHENEY COULDN'T KEEP HIS HANDS OFF IT!
BLOODY WAR CRIMINALS.
If there is going to be anoil glut because of shale oil,then maybe oil linked pricing isn't so bad?
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