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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BONO AND VAN MORRISSON UP TO THEIR ARMPITS IN CRUDE.
ReplyDeletehttp://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/16/bonos-village-braces-for-fight-in-dublin-bay-oil-drill-plan/
In an Irish village known more for its riches than resources, locals used to celebrity spotting are steeling themselves for a fight over oil.
Providence Resources Plc and its partner won a license on Sept. 27 to carry out exploratory drilling in Dublin Bay, 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Dalkey, where U2 frontman Bono and fellow musician Van Morrison have homes. The plans are pitting villagers who welcome the potential investment against others frightened of the impact on the landscape.
“If there was an oil spill, it would be a disaster for the people living here,” said John O’Sullivan, 66, a writer, out for a walk on the beach facing the proposed location of the rig. “They’ll never get permission to drill commercially; the well- heeled locals here will see to that.”
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Shell Precedent
In Ireland, local opposition can be a powerful tool. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s development of a gas field off Ireland’s west coast has been mired in delays since its discovery in 1996. Locals concerned about the proximity of pipes to their homes and the environmental impact on the area continue to fight plans to bring gas onshore from the field by early 2015.
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Shell's plans to move the TBM (tunnel boring machiene) were disrupted this evening as a lock-on has been in place since 7.30pm this evening, if ANYONE CAN COME DOWN TO SUPPORT US IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS please do!
DeleteFROM SHELL TO SEA - Rossport Solidarity Camp Erris's status
OCTOBER 12 2012
Long-time Papua New Guinea explorer Oil Search Ltd. has farmed out a 50% interest in five of its Papua New Guinea exploration permits to France’s Total SA. It is the major’s first entry into the country.
ReplyDeleteThe deal is a culmination of a lengthy selection process which involved Oil Search looking at a number of international, LNG-capable independent oil and gas companies.
The drilling program of two definite wells and two options will begin offshore during first-quarter 2013.
Total says the deal is part of a strategy to strengthen the company’s presence in the region, particularly in gas and LNG.
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Shell hungry for Thai gas
Royal Dutch Shell is looking to expand its business in Thailand to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and tap strong gas demand in the local market
So far, only energy flagship PTT Plc has played a major role in gas trading.
He said Shell has advanced LNG production technology in many regions, each of which is linked to a production plant. It is also developing floating LNG in Australia and has the largest gas production project called Pearl GTL in Qatar, he added.
Energy demand in Asia will increase by half over the next 10-15 years. The world's population will increase to from 7 billion this year to 9 billion, with an expanding middle class and new upper class leading to higher demand in the global market.
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Mozambique to Grant More Natural Gas Concessions
"There is a big interest in exploration," he said, adding that almost all the majors Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC and Chevron Corp. had expressed an interest in bidding for potentially highly lucrative concessions to explore for gas off the country's Indian Ocean coast.
The areas on offer are east of the existing blocs in the deep water Rovuma basin close to the Tanzanian border in the north-east, as well in the Zambezi River Delta in the centre of the country, said Mr. Zacarias.
Around 130 trillion cubic feet of gas have been discovered so far, but this is barely half of what might eventually be extracted, authorities said in September.
Even with the current discoveries--mostly in concessions managed by U.S.-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Italy's ENI SpA --Mozambique could become one of the world's top Liquefied Natural Gas exporters after Qatar and Australia
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While iron ore and coal projects in Australia are either being scaled back or mothballed, Ferguson said there has been no investment pullback in the liquefied natural gas industry.
"There's potentially a second wave of LNG investment in Australia taking us well through 2020 in terms of construction and additional capacity," he said.
Australia has more than $170 billion worth of LNG export projects under construction, and the country's gas developers have planned to add more than 80 million tonnes per annum of LNG production before the end of the decade, an increase that would make Australia the world's top LNG exporter, surpassing Qatar.
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A SECOND WAVE - OH SH*T!!!!
WOODSIDE Energy and Swire Pacific are among the companies sponsoring a project to encourage the adoption of LNG-fuelled vessels in Australian waters.
ReplyDeleteThe study will concentrate on LNG fueled OSVs and tugs plying in Australian waters, but the key recommendations developed will be valid for most ship types. Geographically, the focus will be on the ports of Dampier, Darwin and Melbourne as points of inclusion.
Why LNG?
In financial terms, there is an additional capital expenditure required by LNG fuelled vessels. This is caused by the requirement of additional technology such an advanced fuel tank, a gas conversion and distribution system and double-walled piping. This additional CAPEX is projected to be justified over the typical lifespan of such a vessel through returns in the form of lower fuel consumption, less maintenance and, most probably, a cheaper fuel as the price of LNG is expected to escalate slower than the price of oil.
The study found that widespread adoption of LNG-as-fuel will be driven by price, the growth of alternative fuels and the degree of global collaboration. Its base-case scenario predicted that, by 2025, there could be 653 deep-sea, LNG- fuelled ships in service, consuming 24 million tonnes of LNG annually. These ships are most likely to be containerships, cruise vessels or oil tankers.
When the study modelled relatively cheap LNG -- for example, priced at 25% lower than current market prices -- the projected number of LNG-fuelled ships tripled to approximately 1,960 units in 2025. If the cost of LNG increased 25% against current prices, hardly any new LNG-powered tonnage was projected to hit the water
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This raises an interesting point re the very expensive shore based processing of LNG - gas is being found everywhere - so if ships,smaller vessels,trucks and other propulsion units and energy sources need the price to come down - then the cheaper ways of processing must be developed to access the markets of the future.eg FLNG.
http://www.energyglobal.com/sectors/liquid-natural-gas/articles/Asia_Pacific_LNG_market_update.aspx
ReplyDeleteAsia Pacific LNG market update
LNG market fundamentals are evolving and changing the ways companies will extract value from the business over the next ten years. The expected growth of LNG demand in Asia is being revised upwards each year and with expected strong regional pricing, the Asian market remains the premium market for suppliers. These trends have triggered a very positive response from suppliers and there are some 44 new LNG projects under development (unrisked this amounts to 271 million tpa of potential new supply). Most projects are targeting Asian markets and will have to compete with existing projects that can divert their LNG supplies to Asia. Given that the current estimate of the ASIAN DEMAND GAP in 2025 is of the order of 155 million tpa, it is clear that not all of the new projects will succeed and it will become the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
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On a risked basis, an average new supply growth rate of 5% pa was generally assumed in 2015 - 2025, making LNG a faster growing industry than other gas. It is quite likely the growth rate will not be linear. NEW SUPPLY PROJECS are more complex, MORE COSTLY AND TAKING LONGER to develop than in the past. Also, with robust gas demand growth and high prices, pipeline projects developers will look to find new ways to compete with LNG wherever possible.
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In the short term, there is little new capacity coming on stream in 2012 - 2014. Further out, several new projects in AUSTRALIA appear to be suffering delays and there is firm medium-term demand assumed out to at least 2016. The Asian market is expected to balance with LNG diverted from the Atlantic Basin (approximately 18 million t moved in 2011 and 12 million t has moved in the first half of 2012).
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As the business grows, it is expected there will be some reshaping of the region’s commercial business models and LNG pricing trends, as the growing community of buyers and sellers adapt to compete and strive to succeed.
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Geopolitics will be pivotal to the region’s development. This will include key decisions taken at the highest levels of governments that will direct the outcome and the impact on the Asia Pacific LNG business. These include: Japanese nuclear policy, US gas export policy, CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS and India’s gas market reforms.
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New buying and selling characteristics (particularly from the US) will bring a new suite of risks that need to be managed. Although several delegates saw the traditional models enduring for some projects, others expect that new US liquefaction tolling models, new trade flows, and more short-term sales and more liberal commercial terms will inevitably start to emerge.
.......Written by Pat Roberts, Associate Director – Gas, CWC Group Ltd
Miner tried to fudge study: anthropologist
ReplyDeleteby: Paul Cleary
From:The Australian
October 17, 201212:00AM
AN anthropologist engaged by Fortescue Metals Group says his services were discontinued after he refused a demand to amend sections of his report discussing indigenous heritage where the company wanted to mine.
In a statement made to a lawyer, Brad Goode says his "tenure with FMG was not continued" after he insisted on including references to the cultural significance of Kangeenarina Creek in the Pilbara. This included accommodating the wishes of the local Yindjibarndi people to have a 50m exclusion zone either side of the creek.
THIS COMPANY,JUST LIKE WOODSIDE,IS BEING ALLOWED BY THE WA AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS TO RUN ROUGHSHOD OVER ALL MATTERS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL HERITAGE.
DeleteSOME HISTORY:
November 23, 2011
Miner 'demanded change to survey'
AN ARCHAEOLOGIST claims she deleted key sections of a survey of Aboriginal heritage sites commissioned by Fortescue Metals Group because she feared she would not be paid for the work if she did not.
Sue Singleton has written to the West Australian government saying she believed her firm, Eureka Heritage History Archaeology, would not be paid an outstanding bill of $70,000 unless she agreed to do so.
''It soon became very clear that, if we did not comply, FMGL would withhold payment of our previous, outstanding and well overdue invoices on the basis that FMGL could not be expected to pay for a report that they could not use. At the time there were a number of invoices that were already overdue for payment, amounting, in Eureka's case to $70,000.00.''
The disputed sites are on Fortescue's giant new Solomon Hub mine in the Pilbara, scheduled to produce about $9 billion worth of iron ore for the next 20 years at present prices.
The company says it has identified and avoided all important heritage sites in the area it is now blasting and bulldozing
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Sept. 12, 2012
Two sites of Aboriginal cultural significance have destroyed by Indigenous employment campaigner Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group at its Solomon Project in the Pilbara, according to documents released under Freedom of Information.
But the WA Department of Indigenous Affairs' has decided not to pursue legal action against the miner under the Aboriginal Heritage Act for the destruction of the two sites and damage caused to a third.
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FMG acknowledged some sites had been damaged but blamed Alpha Archaeology, which provided information they relied on, in a December letter to the DIA.
It is understood the senior archaeolgist behind the report no longer works for Alpha Archaeology.
"Any such impact is regretted, was certainly unintended and arose from incorrect and inaccurate information being provided to Fortescue by one of its independent archaeological firms, Alpha Archaeology," FMG wrote.
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http://yindjibarndi.org.au/yindjibarndi/
Recent reports that, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) is pushing ahead with the “low-cost Firetail deposit” at its Solomon Project, while scaling back other operations, have raised fears of a ‘heritage holocaust’ as FMG scrambles for cash flow to weather the freefall in iron ore price.
CONT...http://yindjibarndi.org.au/yindjibarndi/
DeleteThese fears follow confirmation in documents released by the Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA), under the Freedom of Information Act, that FMG has destroyed two Yindjibarndi sites and damaged a third at Solomon with impunity, and has “under-reported” sites in the project area by about 30%.
111223 Briefing Director General to Minister Indigenous Affairs
120201 Memorandum Compliance Officer James Cook to Director General Cliff Weeks
When the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC), in November last year, accused FMG of damaging Yindjibarndi sites, FMG responded with a Press Release that said: “Michael Woodley’s allegations that Fortescue has damaged sacred sites are untrue”. The press release of 7 November 2011 stated, FMG “categorically rejects offensive claims that it is operating unlawfully regarding Aboriginal heritage sites at its Solomon Hub project.”
111107 Fortescue rejects claims of unlawful heritage dealing
However documents released by DIA reveal that the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee (ACMC) requested DIA officers to undertake an on-ground inspection at Solomon to resolve “issues regarding the veracity comprehensiveness of the heritage information provided by FMG”; and that this inspection confirmed:
—two Yindjibarndi sites were completely destroyed, leaving DIA with “no possibility of further assessment”, and another was partially destroyed between September and November last year;
—at least 17 sites had been “declassified” by FMG’s heritage consultants; and,
—FMG had “under reported possible heritage sites on the Solomon Firetail Project Area by about 30%.”
111100 DIA On-Ground Sites Investigation Report Solomon
This evidence contradicts FMG’s denials and demonstrates the truth of both Michael Woodley’s allegations and repeated objections by YAC to DIA, over the past 18 months, that FMG was under-reporting and de-classifying sites in the Solomon Project area.
A crucial factor in the exposure of FMG’s breach was the revelation by archaeologist Sue Singleton (of Eureka Heritage, NSW), that FMG had coerced her into removing expert ethnographic information from a report that FMG “considered prejudicial” to its business; and the release of Ms Singleton’s database of Yindjibarndi sites, which enabled DIA to detect omissions in FMG’s reports
Irate mayors plot Barnett fall
ReplyDelete(DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT PANELS - ON THE NOSE EVERYWHERE)
High-profile independents are targeting the Barnett Government's heartland amid growing disquiet in the golden triangle.
Cottesloe and Nedlands mayors Kevin Morgan and Max Hipkins are to take on Premier Colin Barnett and Environment Minister Bill Marmion in their safe Liberal seats, motivated by "fear, anger and alienation" in the western suburbs.
Both will argue that the Government's proposed council amalgamations, "draconian" planning laws and moves to create higher-density, high-rise developments in the western suburbs ignore the wishes of local communities.
The two mayors are members of the Western Suburbs Alliance and the City Gatekeepers lobby group, which opposed the Elizabeth Quay foreshore development.
Fellow alliance member and environmentalist Wayne Monks will run as an independent in Churchlands, which is being vacated by former education minister Liz Constable. Former marketing manager and road train driver Greg Ross will contest Planning Minister John Day's Kalamunda seat.
The alliance was formed in July and consists of high-profile professionals and community groups.
Mr Hipkins said the Government's DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT PANELS - which determine applications for big projects instead of local councils - were increasingly seizing power from councils
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Political commentator Harry Phillips said though taking on a premier or minister would be tough, local mayors were best placed to mount such a challenge.
"If both mayors could get the bulk of preferences from Labor, and the Greens, then you'd have to believe that with a good campaign they might be in with a chance," he said.
Origin Oil are developing a system to clean up frac water.
ReplyDeleteSome staggering facts here on the amount of water fraccing requires.
HOWEVER - HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET ON SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF CASING CORROSION.
OriginOil, Inc. (OTCBB: OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough energy production process for harvesting algae and cleaning up oil & gas water, announced that it has signed its first agreement to license OriginOil’s proprietary CLEAN-FRAC process with oil and gas water treatment firm Pearl H2O.
The agreement is the first in the company’s “Powered by OriginOil” strategy of deploying OriginOil’s unique technology across global markets to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) who will integrate it seamlessly into their systems and under their own brand.
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Water is produced and used in large quantities in oil and gas operations. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, an average of 3 barrels of contaminated water is generated for each 1 barrel of oil produced. In the United States, the average is 7 barrels of water. Greentech Media reports that energy companies pay between $3 – $12 to dispose of each barrel of produced water, implying a potential world market value between $300 billion and $1 trillion per year. rollout under our new partnership."
7 BARRELS OF WATER FOR EVERY BARREL OF OIL!
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http://www.wilderness.org.au/files/briefing-paper-january-2012-what-the-frack-the-threat-of-fracking-and-onshore-unconventional-gas-in-wa
"Casings that are designed to protect groundwater from contamination are likely to, and in fact do, corrode over time.
A senior officer of DMP recently told a stakeholder reference group meeting held at the EPA offices in Perth that we need not worry about the likelihood of failure of abandoned gas wells due to casing corrosion because “well casings do not corrode, they are good for a lifetime - up to 100 years”.
This is an entirely rhetorical statement. In fact, casing corrosion is a common problem in the petroleum industry.
For example, a conventional oil well – Hovea 8 - in the northern Perth basin, operated by ORIGIN ENERGY, had to be ‘shut in’ earlier this year due to casing corrosion during production. This well had only been in operation for 8 years and was not subject to the high pressures of fracking or high volumes of unknown chemicals used in the fracking process.
In WA, nobody is held responsible for failure of abandoned wells. Future generations will be left with this legacy."
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As far as the construction goes, it depends on the materials that are used. The standard until recently has been steel casing. Steel casing has an average life of about 30 years. After about 30 years the casing will rust and the well will collapse. It also depends on the quality of water. There are places where a steel-cased well can last 100 years, but there are also places where a steel-cased well won't last five years.
Of course some companies,especially since the GFC,have used cheap Chinese steel casings to save money.
DeleteThe amount of defective steel coming out of China has been staggering,everything from cranes to motorcycles have been breaking and collapsing.
The same applies to their steel casing.
Another disaster waiting to happen,what a mess.