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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What crap.The usual lack of management talent in Australia shows up once again in the "we're too dumb to look after the environment" exscuses.Same old same old.
ReplyDeleteControlling costs,blue collar wages must be cut while polititions and management get 40% pay rises year on year.
Ever wondered about the cost of hiring a jack up rig?
Check out these prices.(Must be the demand - of course)
TRANSOCEAN has highlighted healthy day rate increases for its floating and jackup drill rigs in its latest fleet update.
The biggest percentage day rate growth reported was for the jackup GSF Monarch, which is currently drilling off Denmark at $95,000 per day.
When the rig moves to the UK continental shelf next year for a job with GDF Suez it will command $165,000 per day, a jump of 74%.
Another rig, the ultra-deepwater floater Discoverer Americas, is on a $509,000 per day contract with Statoil in the Gulf of Mexico until May 2014.
Transocean has negotiated a two-year extension for $600,000 per day, an 18% increase.
Yet that pales in comparison with the 38% increase on a new 32-month deal for the midwater floater GSF Grand Banks when its current contract runs out in January.
Client Husky Energy will pay $410,000 per day to keep using the GSF Grand Banks off of Canada.
Earlier this year, Noble Corporation announced a three-year, $618,000 per day contract for its new ultra- deepwater drillship Noble Bob Douglas, currently being built by Hyundai in South Korea and due for completion in late 2013.
Noble’s Noble Clyde Boudreaux is currently drilling the Palta-1 off the northwest coast of Western Australia for Shell at a day rate of $417,000.
WOW
One thing is for sure,when it comes time to cut some heads for these massive f*ck ups it won't be the people on the ground who get the chop - it will be the senior management who gave the go ahead for these giant screw ups in the first place.
DeleteSHELL’S floating LNG capabilities, and the follow-on opportunities for Western Australia, will be in the spotlight at next week’s Deep Offshore Technology conference in Perth.
ReplyDeleteSteenson said that with the world’s first FLNG project being developed in Western Australia, the state had the opportunity to establish itself as a leader in FLNG operations.
He said there had been significant interest from the broader oil and gas industry since Prelude was announced.
“Shell’s FLNG technology is a potential lower-cost option for many fields,” he said.
“Construction of FLNG facilities in one shipyard, with a dedicated, specialised workforce, has obvious cost advantages over greenfields sites in remote, high-cost locations.
“Another advantage of our FLNG strategy of ‘design one, build many’ is that through replication and standardisation we can reduce the capital cost and construction period of FLNG facilities over time.”
The Deepwater Offshore technology conference is on November 27-29 at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre.
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Do we all know in our heart of hearts it's too late for us - we are all doomed?
More than 1,000 new coal plants planned worldwide, figures show
World Resources Institute identifies 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India
The huge planned expansion comes despite warnings from politicians, scientists and campaigners that the planet's fast-rising carbon emissions must peak within a few years if runaway climate change is to be avoided and that fossil fuel assets risk becoming worthless if international action on global warming moves forward.
Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India. The capacity of the new plants add up to 1,400GW to global greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of adding another China – the world's biggest emitter. India is planning 455 new plants compared to 363 in China, which is seeing a slowdown in its coal investments after a vast building programme in the past decade.
Most new coal-fired plants will be built by Chinese or Indian companies. But new plants have largely been financed by both commercial banks and development banks. JP Morgan Chase has provided more than $16.5bn (£10.3bn) for new coal plants over the past six years, followed by Citi ($13.8bn). Barclays ($11.5bn) comes in as the fifth biggest coal backer and the Royal Bank of Scotland ($10.9bn) as the seventh. The Japan Bank for International Co-operation was the biggest development bank ($8.1bn), with the World Bank ($5.3bn) second.
In January, the Bank of England was warned that fossil fuel sub-prime assets posed a systemic risk to economic stability, because only 20% of the reserves of the top 100 coal and top 100 oil and gas companies could be burned while keeping the global temperature rise under the internationally agreed limit of 2C.
http://yindjibarndi.org.au/yindjibarndi/?p=2848#.UKsFCWM-7y8.facebook
ReplyDeleteSpotlight on FMG native title conduct—7.30 (ABC-TV tonight)
TONIGHT
7.30 ABC Television—Tuesday (20 November)
■ABC’s 7.30 tonight investigates evidence brought to light by whistleblower/solicitor, Kerry Savas, who alleges underhanded conduct by Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) in its dealings with the Yindjibarndi people, over Fortescue’s Solomon Hub iron ore project.
■This follows a series of revelations over the past year about FMG’s campaign against the Yindjibarndi; their failure to report heritage sites, and their ‘declassification’ and destruction of heritage sites.
■Tonight Mr Savas gives an insider’s account of the bitter fight over the project, and a view into FMG’s heritage approvals process, mired in accusations.
More reasons for Barnett and C.Martin to check the headstones.
ReplyDeleteBefore Alysha attempted suicide on October 29, she had her say about the depression that has blighted her life for the past four years and WA's mental health services. Ms Devereux, who later found the videos on her daughter's iPad, said she released the videos to _The West Australian _because Alysha wanted her message heard.
"She wanted to make a difference. She wanted to make a point that the mental health system is not working. She made the point that more people are going to die if they don't get help," she said.
Her quiet voice dissolved to almost a whimper as she ended by begging her family: "Don't think any less of me because of what I'm doing please."
Roxanne Devereux wept quietly as she played the message in the home she shares with Alysha and her 10-year-old daughter, Brianna.
She said that after Alysha attempted suicide in September, police came to the hospital to take her to the Bentley Adolescent Unit as an involuntary patient, Alysha's second brief stay in the 12-bed clinic, WA's only secure psychiatric unit for 12 to 18-year-olds. Ms Devereux said both times Alysha was taken there after a suicide attempt she was discharged the next day.
"She was in the waiting room, packed, with her bags waiting for me. I didn't get to speak to anybody. Nobody spoke to me. She just rang me and said 'come and get me'," she said.
The family were then told they would have to wait three weeks before they could get an appointment at the local child and adolescent mental health clinic.
"She said, 'I can't wait three weeks, Mum, I can't wait three weeks'. We went to Joondalup hospital and asked them again, they said no again and there was nowhere else you can go but Bentley. She knew she still wanted to harm herself, that she was not safe," Ms Devereux said.
Chief executive Kempton Cowan said Joondalup Health Campus had an adult mental health unit but lacked facilities to look after children or adolescents with serious mental health conditions.
Before her appointment arrived, Alysha made her second video and shortly afterwards the suicide attempt that could soon end her life.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or go to online crisis support chat at lifeline.org.au
.........
Ms Devereux remains in a critical condition in a Perth hospital.
This morning, the Minister Helen Morton said there was a raft of services available for adolescents in the mental health system.
The opposition spokeswoman, Ljilijana Ravlich says the Minister appears to be denying there is a problem.
"Quite clearly the minister hasn't taken any note of that [mental health] report because for her to have made such an insensitive comment means that she's not accepting that any of these issues are real," she said.
"The Minister is of the view that services are available and that the only problem is that people don't know how to access them, and so therefore they are causing their own problems.
"The reality is that the services simply aren't there."
Mrs Morton says she stands by her comment.
"I don't have enough information at this stage to know precisely how many of those other services Alysha had tried or her parents had tried, or her mother, but there are services available," she said.
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DO YOU THINK A GAS PLANT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
IS IT FAIR TO RAISE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS ABOUT THESE TYPE OF ISSUES?
IS IT RIGHT TO USE THESE VULNERABLE PEOPLE AND THEIR DESPERATE FAMILLIES TO SATISFY THE GREED OF OIL AND GAS COMPANIES.
They are totally corrupt now what will they be like if they change these environment laws?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-20/fmg-accused-of-rigging-meeting/4382826
Andrew Forrest's mining company, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), has been accused of rigging a meeting with Indigenous stakeholders to win the rights to mine more than $100 billion of iron ore.
Lawyer Kerry Savas says a meeting in March last year with Indigenous land owners in the East Pilbara was a sham, and FMG established a group of land owners who would fight to accept its deal.
The meeting was ugly and physical, and the Wirla-murra claimed to have won the vote by a show of hands.
It was a big win for FMG, but Mr Savas - a Perth-based lawyer employed by FMG to help the Wirla-murra - says it was all a set up.
"On the face of it, it was an Aboriginal meeting; however, when you look at it closely, it wasn't," he said.
Kerry Savas
"The table was set by FMG and they had prepared the menu as they wanted it, so they had prepared who the guests were going to be - they wanted to get enough people there to defeat the YAC and they did.
"It is unusual when it is a corporation involved and they want to control the meeting to that extent and to pay fees to people that are voting at a meeting.
"When the outcome of that vote is directly affected to the company, that in itself is very unusual."
Productivity problems?
ReplyDeletePerth's bus and train patronage is exploding beyond expectations, putting pressure on the city's burgeoning public transport network.
In the first three months of this financial year, commuters took one million more train journeys (up 6.5 per cent) and 1.2 million more bus journeys (up 6.2 per cent) around Perth compared with the previous year.
Mr Buswell said buses and trains were late mainly because of traffic congestion caused by roadworks in and around the city and the impact of rail works related to the Perth City Link and Butler extension projects.
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It's all about the jobs.
THE COALITION says Labor cannot expect to meet its ambitious closing the gap target if it refuses to renew funding for crucial indigenous employment programs.
The warning comes after The Australian revealed that businessman and cotton farmer Dick Estens had accused the Gillard government of being “un-Australian” after it used a tender to halve his indigenous traineeship work, and now refuses to say whether it will fund his flagship Aboriginal Employment Strategy, which expires next month.
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Yesterday it was Pattersons - today its Societe Generale.They are all saying the same thing,plants like Browse at JPP are "With rampant cost inflation in the face of an increasingly price-sensitive customer base, these large-scale, expensive projects simply look cumbersome and outdated in the context of intensifying global competition,"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smh.com.au/business/cheap-us-gas-set-to-scupper-local-projects-20121122-29r4z.html
Australian liquefied natural gas export projects face being shelved if they do not adapt to rising cheap competition, French bank Societe Generale said on Wednesday.
The bank said that the prospects of new exporters emerging in the LNG market in the next few years would put make it more difficult for current costly projects, mainly in Australia, to compete.
"With rampant cost inflation in the face of an increasingly price-sensitive customer base, these large-scale, expensive projects simply look cumbersome and outdated in the context of intensifying global competition," the bank said in a research note.
"The emergence of the US and Canada as potential major LNG exporters will create a new environment in which Australia will find it more difficult to compete," the bank added.
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A boom in unconventional gas exploration in North America has led to a collapse in US natural gas prices, meaning that potential American exporters will be able to offer their gas at lower prices than Australia, where production costs are higher.
The US is planning to export its first LNG cargoes in 2015 through the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, and although Canadian projects are at earlier stages of development, energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie says Canada has huge untapped gas export reserves.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that it projects North American LNG exports to reach 35 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2020 and more than 40 bcm by 2035.
That would make North America a mid-sized gas exporter, at around 40 per cent of the annual supplies of Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, or Norway, Europe's second biggest supplier after Russia
The competition for Shells investment kitty is unlikely to leave room for an overpriced gas plant at JPP.
DeleteThis re Shell investing in Phillipines LNG.
The company is currently undertaking studies for the proposed $1-billion LNG regasification terminal, which may be put up near its refinery in Tabangao, Batangas. A $150-million upgrade for the refinery is also being planned.
According to Kanapi, the final investment decision—which will determine whether Royal Dutch Shell will pour in the needed investments for the LNG facility and refinery—is expected sometime next year.
“It’s going to be a commercial decision, an investment decision, because it involves big money. We’re fighting for the same investment kitty that Shell wants to put all over the world. So [there is a need to determine] how this project rates compared with other investment proposals in other countries,” Kanapi said
A quick look at the crazy world of energy,todays headlines.
ReplyDelete...
HORIZON Oil is in talks to sell stakes in its Papua New Guinea natural-gas assets, after drilling results beat expectations and highlighted the potential for a liquefied natural gas plant.
A deal could be worth around $250 million, based on recent transactions in Papua New Guinea, which UK-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates has reserves totalling at least 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
....
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, said it will invest around $1 billion annually in its upstream businesses in China, a move based on the country's surging natural gas consumption.
"There is huge potential to come in terms of the natural gas market in China," Peter Voser, the company's chief executive officer, said on Tuesday in Beijing.
He said the company's investment scale will change depending on how successful its current projects are in the following years, as unconventional gas exploration is a "very complicated process" that takes longer time than conventional gas exploration.
.....
BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — Adding an environmental standard to a law book takes at least three years in China, which helps explain why the State Council’s decision to fast-track the nation’s fledgling shale gas industry is making a lot of people nervous.
China has no rules to protect groundwater and other resources from the potentially harmful side-effects of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” A Ministry of Environmental Protection source said the agency would need three to five years to write one.
Nevertheless, a white paper on energy development released Oct. 24 by the State Council calls for ramping up the industry and pumping 6.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from underground shale formations by 2015.
Complementary policy documents released by several central government ministries suggest the nation’s ultimate goal is a huge fracking industry that extracts up to 100 billion cubic meters a year by 2020.
.....
Murphy Oil Corp has expanded its position in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia by picking up 20% working interest in Block WA-408-P where drilling is expected to start in December.
The gas-prospective block directly offsets Block AC/P 36, in which Murphy hold a 50% working interest.
Murphy provided no additional details or terms regarding its stake in on Block Wa-408-P.
Separately, a group led by Santos Ltd. has drilled a large gas-condensate discovery in the Browse basin 60 km west of giant Ichthys field offshore Western Australia (OGJ Online, Nov. 19, 2012).
The Crown-1 exploratory well, in 440 m of water on WA-274-P, logged 61 m of net gas pay in the Jurassic Montara, Plover, and Malita reservoirs and recovered multiple condensate-bearing gas samples.
The WA-408-P joint venture has committed to drill the Dufresne-1 and Bassett West-1 exploratory wells as soon as Crown-1 has been completed.
....
cont...
ReplyDeleteTHE owner of a Gulf of Mexico oil rig where two men were killed in an explosion last week had racked up more than 315 safety violations since 2010, US regulators have revealed.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has told Black Elk Energy it must take immediate steps to improve its safety performance.
BSEE director James Watson said Black Elk had repeatedly failed to observe federal regulations.
"BSEE has taken a number of enforcement actions, including issuing numerous incidents of non-compliance, levying civil penalties and calling in the company's senior leadership to review their performance, and the ramifications of failing to improve,” Watson said.
“This is an appropriate and necessary step as we continue to investigate the explosion and fire that resulted in the tragic loss of life and injuries last week."
BSEE said its action followed numerous safety incidents involving Black Elk facilities.
These included an October 2011 incident where it was discovered that Black Elk operations had used an acid-based chemical for treating a well that resulted in the hospitalisation of six workers.
Meanwhile, Black Elk announced it had called off the search for the body of one of the two men killed in the explosion at the West Delta 32 rig last Friday.
....
Australia should have a thriving aluminium smelting industry providing jobs and income, but was instead missing out by selling bauxite and alumina offshore, where others produced it, Alcoa of Australia managing director Alan Cransberg reportedly said.
According to AAP, Cransberg said Alcoa recently invested in a $10 billion joint venture in Saudi Arabia because it was receiving government backing for the whole supply chain from mining to smelting.
He said it had also “reluctantly” invested $100 million to $200 million in three separate LNG projects in WA to secure some energy supply.
....
"This is a big decision for the state," Cuomo told reporters.
"It has potential economic benefits if the state goes forward with fraccing, but we want to make sure it's safe and we want to make sure the environment is protected, people are protected and that's why we're doing a health assessment."
Industry groups have criticised the choice of health experts to review the state study, saying they have publicly demonstrated bias against the industry, AP said.
....
cont...
ReplyDeleteKey Petroleum says the spudding of Cyrene-1 in the Canning Basin is about two to three weeks away
It told the Australian Securities Exchange it now had the authority for expenditure okayed by joint venture partners Buru Energy, Mitsubishi Corporation and Indigo Oil.
It also received approval for its application to drill, lodged with the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The approvals mean it can now start mobilising the DCA Rig 7 to the Cyrene-1 site about 100km south of Broome to start drilling.
It also told the market it had signed a turnkey contract for the rig.
.....
Someone wrote here they were paranoid of the potential of drones to spy on innocent people.
POSITION Partners has extended its drone arsenal by adding the rotary blade Aibot X6 Aibotix to the Siruis unmanned aerial vehicle it already fields.
Unlike fixed-wing UAVs, the Aibot X6 operates via six propellers, positioned in a hexagonal shape above the camera, that are protected by a lightweight, robust carbon fibre housing.
Because the camera is mounted on the outside of the UAV frame, a wide range of options is available to suit the purpose of the flight from thermographic to digital single lens reflex cameras and also video cameras.
There is even the option to transmit a live video broadcast to a ground station or video display goggles to enable real-time viewing.
....
The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a record high in 2011, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported Tuesday (Nov. 20).
Chief among these heat-trapping gases is carbon dioxide (CO2), the biggest culprit behind global warming. Carbon dioxide levels reached about 390.9 parts per million last year, which is 140 percent of the pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million and nearly 2 parts per million higher than the 2010 carbon dioxide level, according to the WMO report.
The international body estimates that about 413 billion tons (375 billion metric tons) of carbon have been released into the atmosphere since 1750, primarily from fossil fuel combustion. About half of this atmospheric carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, and much of it will linger for centuries, causing the planet to warm further, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud warned.
Historically, the Earth's oceans and forests have helped balance the atmosphere's carbon equation by sucking up large amounts of the greenhouse gas. But Jarraud said natural carbon sinks might not be able to mitigate the problem as effectively in the future.
"Until now, carbon sinks have absorbed nearly half of the carbon dioxide humans emitted in the atmosphere, but this will not necessarily continue in the future," Jarraud said in a statement. "We have already seen that the oceans are becoming more acidic as a result of the carbon dioxide uptake, with potential repercussions for the underwater food chain and coral reefs. There are many additional interactions between greenhouse gases, Earth's biosphere and oceans, and we need to boost our monitoring capability and scientific knowledge in order to better understand these."
Greenhouse cases trap heat within the Earth's atmosphere and create a warming effect on the climate known as radiative forcing. From 1990 to 2011, radiative forcing by greenhouse gases shot up 30 percent, with carbon dioxide blamed for about 80 percent of this increase, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Besides carbon dioxide, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are also implicated in the greenhouse effect. In 2011, the level of methane in the atmosphere reached a new high of about 1,813 parts per billion, or 259 percent of the pre-industrial level, due to increased emissions from human activities, such as cattle breeding, rice farming and fossil fuel use. The atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide, meanwhile, hit about 324.2 parts per billion last year, or 120 percent of the pre-industrial level and 1 part per billion above the 2010 level.
There are two really excellent letters in this weeks Broome Advertiser.
ReplyDelete"Minister can learn from US example on oil spill,"by Ian D. Mackintosh.
and
"Keep suicide out of politicking,"by Joe Tighe,Alive and kicking Goals suicide prevention project manager Broome.
A must read for all!
More FLNG for Browse.
ReplyDeleteNov 22 (LNGJ) - Australian explorer Nexus Energy and Royal Dutch Shell plan to accelerate activities around their Crux gasfield in Western Australia's offshore Browse Basin during the next 18 months in an attempt to find enough feed-gas for a stand-alone floating LNG project. Crux holds about 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, on the border line of what is required for a long-term FLNG development.
Nexus eyes Crux equity sale
Delete--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 22 November 2012
NEXUS Energy is in the market to divest part of its 17% stake in the Crux asset and it says buyers are lining up.
The world is straying further away from commitments to combat climate change, bringing the prospect of catastrophic global warming a step closer, a UN report said on Wednesday. The warning came as nearly 200 governments prepare to meet in Qatar for international climate negotiations starting next Monday.
ReplyDeleteThe gap between what world governments have committed to by way of cuts in greenhouse gases and the cuts that scientists say are necessary has widened, but in order to stave off dangerous levels of global warming, it should have narrowed. There is now one-fifth more carbon in the atmosphere than there was in 2000, and there are few signs of global emissions falling, according to the new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
The warning of increasing emissions came as fresh evidence was published showing the last decade was the warmest on record for Europe. The European Environment Agency (EEA) said all parts of the region had been affected, with higher rainfall in northern Europe and a drying out in the south, bringing flooding to northern countries including the UK, and droughts to the Mediterranean.
According to the United Nations report, drawing on research from more than 50 scientists, the widening gap between countries' plans and scientific estimates means that governments must step up their ambitions as a matter of urgency to avoid even worse effects from warming. "The transition to a low-carbon, inclusive green economy is happening far too slowly and the opportunity for meeting [scientific advice on emissions targets] is narrowing annually," said Achim Steiner, executive director of Unep.
The explicit goal of international policy is to prevent global warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is the limit of safety beyond which climate change is likely to become irreversible and catastrophic. That goal that has been roughly translated as a concentration of carbon in the atmosphere of no more than 450 parts per million. To meet this, governments would have to ensure that no more than 44 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is emitted per year by 2020. The UN's latest research, published on Wednesday as the Emissions Gap Report 2012, shows that on current trends, emissions by 2020 will be 58 Gt CO2e.
We are already seeing how climate change – with more extreme weather events, rising seas and more droughts – is taking its toll on people, property and our economy. Without a rapid change in direction, the world is headed more and more firmly down a path to even more severe changes that will be felt around the globe."
In Europe, the EEA said land temperatures in the decade from 2002 to 2011 were 1.3C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Europe could be between 2.5C and 4C warmer from 2050, according to projections. The study found heat waves have increased in frequency and length, while river droughts have been more severe and frequent in southern Europe. Glaciers in the Alps have lost about two-thirds of their volume since 1850.
It's not only Aussie LNG feeling the effect of the US shale gas boom.
ReplyDeleteThe Australian Coal Association says the dramatic slump in global commodity prices, which has prompted thousands of job losses around the country, caught the industry off guard.
It is estimated more than 7,500 jobs have been lost in the sector this year, with the bulk of those in Queensland, as resources firms cut spending by closing mines and shelving projects.
The Coal Association's chief executive Nikki Williams says, while commodity prices are cyclical, no one was prepared for the breakneck pace of the latest slump.
"What is unprecedented is the speed of the price drop and the ramp up in costs and that price crunch," she said.
"Literally it was like going off a cliff. It just happened very quickly - a very steep decline - it was not a slowing down of the cycle which you've typically seen in many past cycles."
Just shows what a pile of crap this is:
ReplyDeleteWOODSIDE’S Pluto LNG has taken the engineering profession’s top project honour, while the Gorgon LNG project was also recognised at Engineers Australia’s 2012 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards.
At the presentation held in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra this week, Pluto won the Sir William Hudson Award for engineering excellence.
Ian Pedersen, who chaired the awards judging panel, said Pluto demonstrated robust planning and practical engineering solutions for the duration of its seven-year implementation.
He said the project was regarded as one of the most environmentally friendly LNG plants in the world.
“The Pluto LNG Project has engaged every discipline of engineering and shows leadership in the design and production of offshore gas facilities for Australia, allowing us to compete in the global market,” Pedersen said.
“This project highlights the important contribution made by engineering professionals to the development of sustainable power and energy options to provide for future generations.”
Chevron’s Gorgon LNG won the Environmental Engineering Excellence Award for the construction of the subsea pipeline shore crossings on Barrow Island.
“The uncompromising environmental commitment to this project suggests engineering construction techniques can be ecologically sensitive and still allow us to maintain our natural environment for the future,” Pedersen said.
.............
Nothing on the destruction of the rock art or the destruction of a class A nature reserve.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMick Sutherland claims to be a man of action.He has zero tolerance for child abuse.This would seem to put him at odds with his masters who only consider busting rock spiders who cant afford a good lawyer.
ReplyDeleteCarol Martin and Barnett should check this before foul mouthing the "No Gas at JPP" supporters.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/15477456/questions-over-abuse-unit-axing/
The former head of a specialist team inside WA Police that targeted paedophiles has called on the national royal commission into child abuse to investigate why the unit was shut down.
Before its closure in 1999, the paedophile investigations team had made more than 100 arrests - including priests and an ABC television presenter - and compiled a database with names of 900 known or suspected child sex abusers.
Internal police documents reveal that in its first year the team had identified 15 paedophile networks in WA, prompting a high-level memo from an assistant commissioner to the deputy commissioner.
"These papers demonstrate an extensive network of paedophiles in Western Australia," the 1995 memo read.
Despite the mountain of intelligence and active investigations, the team was axed four years later.
"We were starting to make some inroads and bit by bit were climbing the social levels," former detective Andrew Patterson told _The West Australian _. "We had made some good arrests and there were some pretty tantalising leads out there, including a judge."
EXACTLY - "...BIT BY BIT WERE CLIMBING THE SOCIAL LEVELS..." -
AND AS USUAL WHEN THEY GET TO THERE - THE AXE FALLS.PEOPLE GET MOVED AROUND JOBS GET AXED.
We were starting to make some inroads and bit by bit were climbing the social levels," former detective Andrew Patterson told _The West Australian _. "We had made some good arrests and there were some pretty tantalising leads out there, including a judge."
Mr Patterson, now the ombudsman at a big NSW council, became disillusioned with WA Police, claiming he was "forced out" of the team he created midway through 1994.
"The easy way was to shut it down and to get rid of me," he said. "Who on earth could make a decision to get rid of a team like that, which wasn't costing much by way of resources and was clearly doing good work.
"Why would you close that down unless there was another agenda?"
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/15477386/detective-tells-of-suspicions/
Operations Amulet, Swap, Utility and others netted more than a dozen paedophiles, including ABC radio and television presenter David Ellery.
In February 1995, Mr Patterson was asked before a Federal parliamentary committee.
"We currently know of the existence of at least 15 paedophile networks in this State," he said in a presentation.
"One network we are aware of has planned to set up a holiday resort in this State - one of their members having inherited a vast sum of money."
By September 1996, the computer database featured more than 900 known or suspected paedophiles and WA Police top brass were left in no doubt about the size of the problem.
Regardless, resourcing was still a major problem and in a no-nonsense memo in July 1997, Mr Patterson described it as a "critical issue".
MICK SUTHERLAND WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON WHY CHILD ABUSE HAS GONE ON UNHINDERED DURING HIS TIME IN THE KIMBERLEY.
PERHAPS CAROL MARTIN COULD BE CALLED AS WELL.
Maybe our Man of Action can explain what happened at the police Xmas party?Haven't heard much on that.Accounts of explicit photos and movies with soundtrack showing Agoriginal suicide victims were considered suitable fare for the Season of Good Will.I believe he has fessed up to some photos but nothing on the rest of it.Could our man of action be involved in a cover up?Remarkably he was quoted as saying it wasn't the photos that were of concern only the way they were accessed.So considerate of him.
DeleteWhy wont taxis go into some areas?Too many taxi drivers go there to have sex with kids.Sutherland and Martin could start with this clue.
DeleteA former taxi driver sprinted from the doors of the District Court in Perth this afternoon after admitting he prevailed upon two young girls for sex when they could not pay their fare, before they stole his cab while he was buying a packet of condoms.
Robin was scheduled to face the start of a trial today when he entered last-minute pleas of guilty to two counts of encouraging or inciting a child to do an indecent act.
One of the charges carries a tougher maximum jail term because it relates to a child aged under 13.
The 27-year-old picked up three girls outside McDonalds in William Street at about 3am on September 27 last year.
After inquiring how the girls intended to pay the taxi fare and being told that they did not know, he pulled over and stated he wanted sex.
The girls then decided to pretend that they would go along with Robin’s plan, but instead stole his taxi when he went to a service station to buy a packet of condoms
The girls were later involved in a police chase and faced charges over the stolen taxi, which is when details emerged of Robin’s sexual proposition.
The charges relate to two of the girls, who were aged 12 and 15 at the time
A FORMER Catholic brother charged five months ago with hundreds of counts of sexual abuse against children and young adults is now living in Sri Lanka because authorities dragged their feet in seeking his extradition to Australia.
ReplyDeleteFormer St John of God brother Bernard Kevin McGrath, who recently served two years in a New Zealand prison for sexually abusing boys there, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in a Newcastle court on June 27.
The 65-year-old is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and '80s.
It is understood that a number of the charges relate to McGrath's time as a brother at the notorious Kendall Grange College in Morissett, New South Wales.
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Fairfax media revealed on Sunday that McGrath is one of three St John of God brothers being sued by Sydney's so-called "playboy rapist", Simon Monteiro, who is currently serving a jail sentence for aggravated rape and who claims that the abuse he suffered has left him with severe psychological disorders.
Among the charges faced by McGrath are 30 counts of homosexual intercourse with a male between the age of 10 and 18, 30 counts of homosexual intercourse between a teacher and a student aged between 10 and 18, and 102 charges of indecent assault.
NSW police were meant to extradite McGrath to Australia from Christchurch where he had lived since being paroled in 2008. But Fairfax Media has learnt that McGrath was allowed to fly out of New Zealand some time after the charges were lodged and is currently staying on a tea plantation in the highlands of Sri Lanka
It is understood that the
extradition may have been delayed by the multiple levels of bureaucracy involved in the extradition process.
It is not known whether Sri Lankan authorities have been informed that an accused paedophile is living in their country.
Although Australia does not have a direct extradition treaty with Sri Lanka, it can extradite suspects from there under the London Scheme, which enables Commonwealth countries to extradite fugitive criminals to each other upon the presentation of prima face evidencE
Brother McGrath was transferred to New Zealand to be a teacher and dormitory master at Marylands, a SJOG boarding school near Christchurch for boys with learning and behavioural difficulties.
In 1993 he was sentenced to three years' jail in New Zealand for offences at Marylands and the Hebron Trust, a learning centre for street kids.
In 2002, more complainants contacted New Zealand police concerning sexual assaults by McGrath, culminating in his conviction in 2006 on 22 counts of abuse.
According to the online Factbook on Global Exploitation, 10,000 to 12,000 children from rural areas in Sri Lanka are trafficked and prostituted to paedophiles by organised crime groups every year.
SRI LANKA IS A KNOWN HAVEN FOR PAEDOPHILES
Speculation Sunrise has now joined other LNG projects as too expensive for land based plant.This is not just because the price of gas is heading down,or flat at best,but the never ending row over Woodside and Conoco's ongoing tax disputes with ET,and of course FLNG now being cheaper than the land option.
ReplyDeleteBut it would be fair to say none of this would have become so serious without the US shale gas revolution.
Browse gas at JPP is now looking impossible for the JV partners because of the now hyper price wary LNG sector.
Costs, policies leave $100bn of projects hanging in the balance: Chevron
ReplyDeleteby: Andrew Burrell
From:The Australian
November 26, 20124:08PM
THE local head of US energy giant Chevron, the biggest foreign investor in Australia, has warned $100 billion worth of projects are "hanging in the balance" due to soaring coats and declining confidence in the federal government's policy settings.
Speaking at the In the Zone conference in Perth today, Chevron Australia managing director Roy Kryzwosinski said resources projects in Australia were 40 per cent more expensive than in the US and its workforce was 60 per cent less productive than the US.
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The man at the helm of Rio Tinto’s China operations, Ian Bauert, has warned that Australia risks underachieving during the Asian century due to high costs and falling productivity.
As Chevron said more than $100 billion in LNG investments in Australia “hang in the balance”, Mr Bauert said Australia had become the miner’s most expensive place to do business after being the cheapest five years ago.
He said Australia had to correct serious shortcomings to realise the aspirations set out in the Asian Century white paper.
The problems included competitiveness, productivity, infrastructure investments and attracting foreign capital.
“Unless the focus of future debate is on addressing such issues, my feeling is we are likely to fall behind and seriously underachieve our potential in the Asian century,” Mr Bauert told the University of Western Australia’s In The Zone conference in Perth.
A series of resource companies have cited costs as reason for pulling back from projects.
Chevron is expected to next week release updated costs for its Gorgon development. The budget for the nation’s biggest ever resource project reportedly may have blown out by $20 billion to more than $60 billion.
Chevron Australian managing director Roy Krzywosinski said the LNG industry’s confidence in making major capital investments was being hit by the current fiscal environment.
“Most industry and political observers suspect further tax imposts on the industry,” Mr Krzywosinski told the conference.
“This should worry anyone who is interested in Australia securing long-term investment.”
He said the carbon tax had “imposed another cost not borne by overseas competitors”.
Australia was at a “cross roads” and government and resource companies needed to work together to find ways to improve long term competitiveness.
Woodside and NAB chairman Michael Chaney told the conference that Australia would only get an acceptable level of economic growth through improving productivity.
He said Australia had been able to grow in the past decade because of high terms of trade, high levels of investment and strong population and workforce growth. This however was masking the impact of declining productivity.
He said further tax reform was also needed.