Mistake in land acquisition for gas hub site - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
The Lands Minister, Brendon Grylls, has confirmed his department failed to notify all the required parties and the process, which takes months, will now have to start from scratch for a third time.
"It's my job to get it right and certainly we've identified here a failure in the process," he said.
"I understand Woodside has been advised of this.
"It is starting to push up against the timeframe for their final investment decision but the Government moving to provide certainty around the land acquisition and that's what we're doing."
Mr Grylls concedes the mistake is embarrassing for him.
"I'm the Minister for Land so I'm the person who signs off finally and I take advice from my department," he said.
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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BARNETT : "I'll ride him harder than Black Caviar"
ReplyDeleteMore like "Delany's Donkey"
Now Barnett had a donkey that everyone admired,
Tempo'rily lazy and permanently tired
A leg at ev'ry corner balancing his head,
And a tail to let you know which end he wanted to be fed
Grylls slyly said "We've underrated it, why not train it?"
Then he took a rag
They rubbed it, scrubbed it,
They oiled and embrocated it,
Got it to the post
And when the starter dropped his flag
There was Grylls pushing it, shoving it, shushing it
Collier,Moore and ev'ryone in town lined up
Attacking it and shoving it and smacking it
They might as well have tried to push the Town Hall down
The donkey was eyeing them,
Openly defying them
Winking, blinking and twisting out of place
Grylls reversing it,
Ev'rybody cursing it
The day Barnett's donkey ran the halfmile race.
The muscles of the mighty never known to flinch,
They couldn't budge the donkey a quarter of an inch
Barnett lay exhausted, hanging round its throat
With a grip just like a Scotchman on a five pound note
Starter, Marmion, he lined up with the rest of 'em.
When it saw them, it was willing then
It raced up, braced up, ready for the best of 'em.
They started off to cheer it but it changed its mind again
There was Grylls pushing it, shoving it and shushing it
Collier,Moore and Robyn McSweeny,
She started poking it, grabbing it and choking it
It kicked her in the bustle and it laughed "Hee Haw!"
The whigs, the conservatives,
Radical superlatives
Libr'rals and tories,
They hurried to the place
Stood there in unity,
Helping the community
The day Barnett's donkey ran the halfmile race.
The crowd began to cheer it. Then Mischin, the judge
He came to assist them, but still it wouldn't budge
The jockey who was riding, little Terry Waldron,
Was so thoroughly disgusted that he went to have his tea
Hames,Redman was students of psychology,
Swore they'd shift it with some dynamite
They bought it, brought it, then without apology
The donkey gave a sneeze and blew the darn stuff out of sight
There was Grylls pushing it, shoving it and shushing it
Collier,Moore and all the bally crew,
P'lice, and auxil'ary,
The Garrison Artillery
The Second Enniskillen's and the Life Guards too
They seized it and harried it,
They picked it up and carried it
Cheered it, steered it to the winning place
Then the Bookies drew aside,
They all commited suicide
Well, the day Barnett's donkey won the halfmile race.
FIFO TOWN OF WICKAM----KARRATHA IS RIGHT NEXT DOOR------rumour has it health stats put the place "NUMBER ONE"NUMERO UNO"as the area most highly infected by VENERIAL DISEASE IN WEST AUSSIE,,,seems the FIFOs dont give a rats about nought but money, nick over to asia on their time off, get totally shitfaced, root anything that mite have some life, return to work, visit the local brothels, the blokes reckon one of which does not demand condoms to be used, they also fratenise in the local pubs n clubs where the FIFO n local chics hangout------GUESS WHAT HAPPENS---you got it, the pox spreads----not a lotta respect for life eh!
DeleteBuswell's 'alcoholism' to blame: Carles
ReplyDeleteUPDATE 8am: Troy Buswell's former partner Adele Carles says claims she was a "jilted lover" were a desperate attempt by the Treasurer to distract from his drunken assault on a Perth millionaire.
This morning the Fremantle MLA took to Twitter to reject allegations in The West Australian this morning that she was paying back the Liberal Party for running a candidate against her at next year's State election.
"Troy's alcoholism and psychological issues caused breakup, jilted lover story a desperate attempt to detract from the sad reality," she Tweeted. "Story peddled by Buswell via Satterley is a sexist and desperate attempt to distract from his drunken assault on Kailis."
"In July, she called Troy to say if the Liberals run a candidate at the election, which they are, she was going to cause problems and try to bring the Liberal Government unstuck," Mr Satterley said. "They are the comments of a jilted lover or a woman scorned."
He suggested Ms Carles, whose affair with Mr Buswell began in 2010, was also motivated by the public appearance at a function last Saturday of Mr Buswell with his new partner.
After a brief press conference yesterday, Ms Carles later told The West Australian that Mr Satterley was wrong.
"It's interesting that Troy would choose Nigel Satterley, who he deals with in his capacity as a minister and Treasurer, to do his bidding in this unsavoury saga," she said. "The bottom line is Mr Satterley was in the room and saw everything."
Ms Carles said she had gone to pick up Mr Buswell from the property developer's house after he had been out to lunch with Mr Satterley and others.
"We were walking out of the lounge room and Nicholas Kailis was sitting on the couch having a chat to the chief executive of a bank," she said. "Troy came up right beside him and jumped on top of him, thinking it was very funny. From my point of view it was a shocking incident."
She said it was one of the reasons she and Mr Buswell separated.
WOODSIDE Petroleum has reached another joint venture agreement to expand its exploration interests in Myanmar (Burma).
ReplyDeleteMyanmar-based MPRL E&P Pte Ltd has accepted Woodside's offer to buy into a block in the Rakhine Basin.
The offer is for a 50 per cent interest in block A-6.
"The proposal provides the opportunity for Woodside and MRPL E&P to undertake a 3D seismic survey program in the block and also provides an option for future drilling," Woodside said in a statement on Monday.
The offer is subject to conditions including execution of fully termed agreements, completion of due diligence, and government and other approvals.
MPRL E&P will remain operator of Block A-6 for the current term of the exploration period.
Woodside said the proposed agreement provides Woodside and MPRL E&P with the opportunity to participate jointly in future deepwater bid rounds.
In October, Woodside struck an agreement with Daewoo International Corporation for a production sharing contract in Myanmar for a block in the Rakhine Basin.
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Opposition Leader Mark McGowan labelled the compulsory acquisition "interventionism", saying it would make the project less likely to go ahead, not more likely.
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Ms Carles said yesterday that Mr Buswell jokingly performed simulated sex on seafood magnate Nicholas Kailis at the Peppermint Grove home of Mr Satterley about a year ago before the prank backfired. Her claim was shot down by people at the event and denied by Mr Buswell.
This morning Ms Carles told Radio 6PR's Paul Murray that Mr Kailis had told her that Mr Buswell "was mentally ill".
Ms Carles, who said she ended the relationship three months later, said Mr Buswell has jumped on Mr Kailis with full force, landing "fully on his body".
She told 6PR the "final straw" in their relationship came on March 18 at a party hosted by Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison.
Ms Carles said Mr Buswell was drunk and wouldn't leave the party and Mr Ellison's wine waiter drove her home.
"I couldn't stand these drunken episodes any more," she said. "When he arrived home I had packed his bags."
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With Mr Buswell now being accused of another inane prank of a sexual nature, Mr Barnett is facing the latest unwanted distraction three months out from the State election.
He defended Mr Buswell yesterday but you can imagine his annoyance at having to do so after spending the morning launching a children's reading program.
But it's the Premier whose credibility could also be on the line because he has chosen to give the flawed genius of Mr Buswell another chance in the face of a public and Liberal Party backlash.
He was spot-on to question how far the private life of the minister should be scrutinised in the media and silly high jinks at a private party is not something that would normally warrant news coverage.
The problem is Mr Buswell has form and is therefore an easy target. Mr Barnett will have to consider whether other grubby tales may be strategically dropped to the media in the heat of an election campaign. The Premier runs the risk of something trivial derailing his bid for a second term of Government. Sticking with Mr Buswell is a gamble once again.
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's economy contracted for a second straight quarter in July-September, revised government data showed on Monday, indicating that weak global demand nudged the export-reliant economy into a mild recession.
Analysts expect another quarter of contraction in the final three months of this year due to sluggish exports to China, keeping the Bank of Japan under pressure to loosen monetary policy as early as this month.
Wonder what he means?
ReplyDeleteTHERE is not, as Slugcatcher will explain, a world of difference between the asylum seeker boats that regularly arrive close to Woodside Petroleum’s facilities off Australia’s North West coast and the company itself – when you think of both as economic migrants.
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A $US355 ($A339) million financial package has been proposed to jump-start the construction of an LNG plant on Alaska’s North Slope and a Fairbanks area natural gas distribution system through the private sector and an area-wide utility.
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Chevron's wrong call.
IN today’s News Wrap: Shell shifts its thinking; Australia’s oil warning; Chevron doesn’t see Henry Hub-linked LNG pricing any time soon.
..
Then this
IN TODAY’S wrap: CNOOC deal given green light; Kansai deal to be a game-changer; BG looking to divest assets.
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BP America Production Co. and 20 other operators would be involved, the field office’s Dec. 7 notice said. It said that BLM’s draft environmental impact statement evaluates possible impacts from the proposed Continental Divide-Creston gas development project near the existing Continental Divide/Wamsutter II and Creston/Blue Gap gas fields.
The companies would drill 8,950 additional gas wells, including 100-500 coalbed methane wells, using a combination of vertical and directional drilling during the next 15 years, the notice said. The wells could produce an estimated 12.02 tcf of gas during the project’s anticipated 30-40 year life, it indicated.
RE CHEVRONS WRONG CALL :
DeleteGas glut slashes export prices
THE worldwide expansion of gas production may force Australian exporters to settle for lower prices after a Japanese company negotiated a landmark contract pegged to US domestic gas prices.
The deal between Kansai Electric Power and BP is the first contract in Japan to be linked to gas rather than oil prices.
THIS ALSO APPLIES TO WOODSIDE,Coleman has said recently LNG will never be linked to US Henry Hub and would stay linked to the oil price.
More big problems for them re Browse at JPP.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/japanese-duped-in-2m-ship-purchase-20121210-2b5ok.html
ReplyDeleteIN A stunt that may upset Tokyo, Sea Shepherd whaling activists have bought a $2 million Japanese government ship to turn against its whalers.
The 56-metre ship was purchased through a third-party US company from its berth next to the whaling fleet in Japan, the activists said.
Renamed New Atlantis and registered in Tuvalu, it was delivered by a Japanese crew to north Queensland, where they thought it was to be converted into a pleasure craft.
Throughout the sale, the Japanese government was unaware that it was doing business with Sea Shepherd, skipper Locky MacLean said on Monday.
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Following a refit, the ship was reflagged to Australia and it is due in Hobart on Tuesday for unveiling ahead of the summer's Antarctic conflict, where the hardline activists will make their strongest bid yet to disrupt the whaling season.
Its New Atlantis disguise has been dropped and the vessel named Sam Simon, after the American founding producer of The Simpsons, an animal welfare advocate, who donated its purchase price.
Built as Seifu Maru in 1993 by IHI shipyard in Tokyo, the ice-strengthened vessel was operated by Japan Meteorological Agency's Maizuru observatory before being laid up in 2010 alongside the whaling fleet in Shimonoseki.
MINING has been banned at the prime Kimberley tourist attraction of Horizontal Falls but copper exploration will continue in surrounding areas.
ReplyDeleteDescribed by famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough as one of the world's greatest natural wonders, massive tidal movements at Horizontal Falls cause the sea to rush through narrow gaps between cliffs in the Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago, 110km north northeast of Derby.
This creates a waterfall effect as water banks up against one side of the passage.
On Wednesday, West Australian resources minister Norman Moore said the state government had established a 72 square kilometre mining exemption area around the site, providing greater protection than national park status.
The exemption zone centres on the falls and is surrounded to the north and southeast by mineral exploration leases granted to Perth-based Pegasus Metals.
The Department of Mines and Petroleum does not have the right to repeal exploration leases once they have been granted.
Pegasus, Koolan Iron Ore Pty Ltd and Kimminco Pty Ltd voluntarily withdrew exploration licence applications or surrendered parts of an already granted exploration licence in the now-exempted zone ``as a show of support for the state's move to protect the falls'', Mr Moore said.
While Pegasus's Copper Cove, Bower Bird, Copper Cliff, Poultons Chasm and Poultons Gorge prospects at its McLarty Range project are next to the exemption zone, there's a big difference between exploring and mining, a department spokeswoman said.
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LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson, tipped as a potential future prime minister, threw his weight behind Britain's shale gas industry on Monday, saying exploration should continue immediately.
"I don't know whether it will work in Britain, but we should get fracking right away," Johnson said in a newspaper column, referring to the process of hydraulic fracturing used to retrieve gas trapped in shale rock formations.
Britain last year temporarily banned the use of fracking after earthquakes were measured near a fracking site close to Blackpool, north west England.
The ban has not been lifted, but last week Britain's Chancellor confirmed plans to introduce tax incentives for shale gas exploration and created a dedicated shale gas office to simplify regulation.
Shale gas exploration has revolutionised the U.S. energy market, where an oversupply of gas has depressed prices and headed the United States toward energy independence.
"The result is that the U.S. is now competitive in industries such as fertilisers and chemicals that American politicians had long since assumed were lost to low-cost economies of the East," Johnson wrote in his regular commentary in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Britain is becoming increasingly dependent on gas imports as domestic supply dwindles, with methane gas production last year slipping below imports for the first time since records began in 1960.
"And then in the region of Blackpool - as if by miracle - we may have found the solution. The extraction of shale gas by hydraulic fracture, or fracking, seems an answer to the nation's prayers," Johnson wrote.
UK shale gas firm Cuadrilla, which owns the sites near Blackpool believed to have triggered the earth tremors, estimated that some 6 trillion cubic metres of gas lie beneath its sites in Lancashire, enough to cover Britain's gas needs for 75 years.
AUSTRALIA'S LNG projects are becoming increasingly uncompetitive and the window of opportunity for new developments may have already closed, a leading analyst has warned.
ReplyDeleteMacquarie analyst Adrian Wood says Australian capital expenditure on LNG projects may peak next year, with the recently approved Ichthys development increasingly likely to be the country's last new project to move into construction.
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The pipeline of oil and gas projects awaiting sanction in Australia has never been bigger, led by a plethora of LNG developments in WA and Queensland. However, soaring cost pressures are playing havoc with project economics, as was illustrated last week when Gorgon operator Chevron admitted its development would now cost $US52 billion ($49.6 billion), compared with a 2009 budget of $US37 billion.
Most commentators believe only a fraction of proposed projects will eventuate.
The cost woes facing the industry and a call for better government policy are expected to be a key focus of today's APPEA-University of WA seminar The Economics of Oil and Gas in Western Australia. Speakers will include Woodside Petroleum's Peter Coleman, UWA's Professor Peter Hartley and Deloitte Access Economics partner Ian Harper.
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Troy sues ex for calling him an alkie !
Troy Buswell is suing his former partner, Fremantle MP Adele Carles, for defamation over the latest claims made about the WA Treasurer's behaviour.
In a writ served on the politician last night, it is alleged that comments published and broadcast across WA media outlets were seriously damaging to Mr Buswell's reputation.
The court document, drawn up by lawyer Martin Bennett, also warns Ms Carles that any further defamatory comments would lead to the Treasurer seeking a Supreme Court injunction against her.
Mr Buswell's legal move follows allegations yesterday morning by Ms Carles that she kicked him out of their home after a second drunken incident at a Perth millionaire's mansion. She said she made the new revelation in response to claims she is a vengeful jilted lover.
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http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/15600026/gas-hub-delay-as-land-deal-hits-hurdle/
ReplyDeleteWoodside faces further delays to its $40 billion Browse gas project after the environmental watchdog said it would seek legal advice over bungled State Government efforts to compulsorily acquire land at James Price Point.
EPA chairman Paul Vogel flagged the added delay yesterday after Lands Minister Brendon Grylls admitted botching the required land acquisition process for the Browse precinct for the second time in 12 months.
Although State environmental approval has already been given for the broader LNG precinct, Woodside needs separate approval from the EPA for its plans to build a gas plant within it.
Those plans, which are a so-called derived proposal, were referred to the EPA last month.
"We will have to be assured that it doesn't affect any decision by the EPA if we were to approve . . . a derived proposal," Dr Vogel said, adding that he expected to know the authority's position within weeks.
"If it is wrong, they (Woodside) will be held up."
The extra hurdle adds to the race against time facing Woodside and its joint venture partners, who must make a decision on whether the project is financially viable by mid next year.
The Government had launched the compulsory acquisition process largely to head off any legal challenges to the gas hub project and give the companies involved certainty.
However, an initial bid to take the land was thrown out of the Supreme Court last year after it ruled the area of land to be acquired had not been adequately described.
Yesterday, Mr Grylls said a second attempt had been scrapped and would have to be restarted after the Government failed to notify all the required parties, potentially adding months to the process.
"This is very disappointing and embarrassing for myself personally but that's what's happened," he said on radio.
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said the Government should never have pursued compulsory acquisition but it was inexcusable it had bungled it twice.
A spokeswoman for Woodside said the "provision of land is a matter for the State" and the company was working towards a final investment decision before July.
DID YOU KNOW? 3530ha The total area of land and sea required for the LNG processing precinct