Burke must intervene as Barnett rubber stamps destruction of Aboriginal heritage at James Price Point | Greens MPs:
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke must intervene immediately to protect Aboriginal heritage at James Price Point and beyond in the wake of the Western Australian government's decision to allow the Woodside Petroleum Gas Hub to disturb Aboriginal heritage sites, the Australian Greens said today.
Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said "I'm shocked that the West Australian government is allowing such destructive acts to happen, particularly when there are two court cases pending.
"Tony Burke has to step in immediately to protect this priceless heritage."
Photo Damian Kelly
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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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Woodside granted access to sacred sites
ReplyDeleteThe State Government has sparked immediate protests after granting resources giant Woodside the right to disturb Aboriginal sacred sites as part of the proposed $40 billion James Price Point gas hub near Broome.
Locals, environmentalists and Australian Greens leader Christine Milne have all condemned the granting of Woodside’s application under the State’s Aboriginal Heritage Act, which allows work in sand dunes at Walmadany.
As far back as 1989, the State’s Department of Aboriginal Sites identified the site as an area of “major” heritage significance, dense with archaeological material, including hearths and bone remains.
The area was controversially described as an “unremarkable beach” by Premier Colin Barnett in 2010
It is understood the application has been granted on the condition local elders be present to monitor the work
...
Trouble with that last paragraph is if these are the people Woodside have hired to be their "cultural guides" it is a wasted exercise.
These people,and everyone knows who they are,spend all their time telling anyone that will listen that,"the only bones up there are bullock bones". or "they are only dog bones".
To qualify for one of these jobs at Woodside you must push the line,similar to Barnett's,that "there is nothing there".
Or else you are just labelled a trouble maker to be followed by their security forces and put on the watch list.
THERE IS NO NEED,OTHER THAN TO SATISFY THE STUPID LEASE CONDITIONS FOR DEVELOPING BROWSE AT JPP,FOR ANY WORK OR DISTURBANCE ON THE SACRED DUNES.
ReplyDeleteTHESE CONDITIONS COULD BE OVERTURNED RIGHT NOW AND THE MADNESS OF BARNETT STOPPED.
THE FEDS WILL HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS IF THEY CONTINUE TO PLAY THIS STUPID GAME.
These are just a few quotes from the Energy News Bulletin by Slugcatcher :
ONE “shot across the bow” of a boat is usually enough to attract the attention of a crew veering into enemy waters. Two shots – which the Australian petroleum industry copped last week – and even Slugcatcher knows it’s time to duck for cover.
Both warnings have so far been ignored. But when studied in light of a fresh and disturbing analysis of the global LNG market, there is enough evidence to wake even sleeping civil servants in Canberra.
Two significant events occurred last week, a time which might one day be remembered as when expansion of the Australian LNG industry officially hit the wall. They were:
Consulting firm Deloitte added its say to the chorus of alarms about the potential damage to the LNG market if the US joins the game;
And Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett signalled that any delay to the Woodside-led Browse LNG project would be the fault of interfering environmentalists and their friends in Canberra.
The Deloitte report did not say much about the changing oil and gas world that people in the industry do not know already. It suggested that the era of pricing LNG against a basket of crude oils was coming to an end, and a gas-on-gas market was emerging as the US considered approving LNG exports, a move which could have a powerful effect on gas prices in Asia.
Lower gas prices are the last threat that the on/off Browse project needs as it struggles to hold together a restless joint venture, as opponents in government and in environmental lobby groups ratchet up their campaign.
Being able to use Canberra as a bogey man played right into the hands of Barnett, who has lashed his political career to the Browse development, even as partners in the proposed project head for the exit.
It’s a step too far for The Slug to say that Barnett is using Canberra as a convenient villain in the Browse story, secretly knowing that the project with its monster capital budget – said to be more than $40 billion – has already run aground in the boardrooms of oil majors.
But having floated that as an idea it might be interesting to see if anyone in the WA Government has the confidence to dismiss the suggestion, bearing in mind that The Slug once worked in government and stuck his fingers into a few resource projects that the government of the day was promoting (just before an election), despite objections from the companies involved, which wanted to postpone investment decisions.
This comes on top of Woodside’s struggle to justify the capital cost of the onshore Browse project and it looks like last week may have been a time when two LNG projects hit the wall, one onshore and one offshore.
For Barnett – who goes into the WA election as a “can-do, action man” with resources development stamped on his forehead – the loss of a key LNG project is more than an unfortunate event because it comes after a series of other project cancellations, topped by the canning of a new iron ore port at Oakajee and BHP Billiton’s Port Hedland outer harbour the biggest, so far!
ONCE AGAIN,THE SLUG :
ReplyDeleteTECHNOLOGY giveth and technology taketh away
The problem – and it could be THE big problem for the year ahead – is accurately assessing how recent technology breakthroughs will shape the petroleum world.
For management, technology advances represent a complex test of how to plan for the future.
Successful planning is being made even more difficult by the bigger-then-ever gas component in future petroleum production because gas is very different to oil in terms of the initial capital required and the longer payback period.
Put more simply, oil fields invariably deliver high immediate cash generation thanks to the nature of maximum flow rates coming early in the life of the field.
Gas fields tend to last longer and deliver lower but longer rates of cash flow, which means they can take decades to repay the capital required, making banking considerations as important as engineering considerations.
..
Enter the technology demons that are unleashing dramatic changes in the gas world, with the biggest being the potential for the rest of the world to deliver a gas glut similar to that which has made life difficult for energy suppliers in the US.
Directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing of shale and other hard rocks have been the breakthroughs of the past decade.
These have produced a well-documented collapse in the US gas price.
However, even as the shale drilling and extraction technology makes its way around the world there is a push in the US to counter the effects of reduced domestic cash flows by exporting surplus gas, effectively flipping import terminals into export terminals.
Talk of surplus US gas reaching the Asian and European markets has sent a shudder through existing LNG producers who fear a similar price-crash effect suffered by the domestic US gas industry and the domestic coal industry.
..
Factoring in the export of shale-gas technology and the possible export of US LNG are two of the technology demons keeping head office oil-company management awake at night.
If the US becomes an LNG exporter gas prices in Asia could fall significantly, rendering high-cost rival projects in Australia and elsewhere uneconomic.
..
Another technology demon is the advent of floating LNG technology, which has the potential to release vast deposits of isolated (or orphaned) gas in fields overlooked by onshore processors.
If floating LNG of the sort to be installed by Shell atop its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia works, as seems theoretically possible, a maritime wagon race will have started.
There will be “LNG floaters” popping up around the world, leading to an entirely new industry of portable (and renewable) LNG production facilities.
Not knowing the full effects of technology change is perhaps the ultimate challenge for management as can be seen in other industries.
Most newspaper publishers and booksellers, for example, failed to understand the power of the internet, as did traditional retailers who are struggling to survive.
The dramatic leap forward in gas technologies is having the same effect in the oil and gas world producing a delicious decision time, which boils down to this choice:
Proceed as if nothing has happened and assume that there is room in the market for every gas producer – courageous, to say the least; or
Sit on the sidelines because the risk in spending too much on an onshore LNG project (particularly in high-cost Australia) is too great – equally courageous in terms of potential missed opportunities.
..
For oil companies with gas options on their agenda these are delicate times, especially for managers with engineering backgrounds.
There are no computer programs or easy-to-read manuals on how to accommodate the dramatic changes underway in the energy world, especially the possible gas glut caused by technology change.
This is more a time for analysing the geopolitics of energy, the psychology of a market and the potential for a gas glut to re-write the business fundamentals of petroleum.
Welcome to 2013. Enjoy the ride.
There are a lot of very important messages in there for Barnett,and he ignores them at his peril.
ReplyDelete"pricing LNG against a basket of crude oils was coming to an end, and a gas-on-gas market was emerging"
"Lower gas prices are the last threat that the on/off Browse project needs"
"Barnett, who has lashed his political career to the Browse development, even as partners in the proposed project head for the exit."
"Barnett is using Canberra as a convenient villain in the Browse story, secretly knowing that the project with its monster capital budget – said to be more than $40 billion – has already run aground in the boardrooms of oil majors."
..
SO BARNETT IS PERFECTLY PREPARED TO USE THE DUNES AT JPP TO SHORE UP HIS IMAGE IN THE LEAD UP TO THE ELECTION.
THIS,IT SEEMS IS HIS ONLY MOTIVE.
................
"For management, technology advances represent a complex test of how to plan for the future."
"Gas fields tend to last longer and deliver lower but longer rates of cash flow, which means they can take decades to repay the capital required, making banking considerations as important as engineering considerations"
"Enter the technology demons that are unleashing dramatic changes in the gas world, with the biggest being the potential for the rest of the world to deliver a gas glut similar to that which has made life difficult for energy suppliers in the US."
"However, even as the shale drilling and extraction technology makes its way around the world there is a push in the US to counter the effects of reduced domestic cash flows by exporting surplus gas, effectively flipping import terminals into export terminals."
"Factoring in the export of shale-gas technology and the possible export of US LNG are two of the technology demons keeping head office oil-company management awake at night."
"If floating LNG of the sort to be installed by Shell atop its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia works, as seems theoretically possible, a maritime wagon race will have started."
"There will be “LNG floaters” popping up around the world, leading to an entirely new industry of portable (and renewable) LNG production facilities."
"Not knowing the full effects of technology change is perhaps the ultimate challenge for management as can be seen in other industries"
"There are no computer programs or easy-to-read manuals on how to accommodate the dramatic changes underway in the energy world, especially the possible gas glut caused by technology change."
"This is more a time for analysing the geopolitics of energy, the psychology of a market and the potential for a gas glut to re-write the business fundamentals of petroleum."
..
SO BARNETT IS HAPPY TO LEAVE THE BROWSE JV PARTNERS LOOKING LIKE A BUNCH OF INEPT FOOLS WHILE HE PEDDLES HIS LIES AROUND THE ELECTION CIRCUIT,AT A TIME WHEN THESE HUGE CHANGES REQUIRE THEIR FULL ATTENTION.
THE TIME WILL COME,SOONER RATHER THAN LATER,WHEN HIS LIES WILL BURN HIM UP AND BRING HIM DOWN IN FLAMES.
IF EVER A POLITITION DESERVED THIS,IT IS BARNETT.
BURN IN HELL YOU IGNORANT BASTARD.
...
(many thanks to The Slug for his many insights)
THE federal government has angered the powerful oil and gas industry by stopping US giant Apache Energy from exploring near the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park off Western Australia.
ReplyDeleteEnvironment Minister Tony Burke ruled yesterday that Apache's application last month to conduct a marine seismic survey in waters near, and partly within, the famous marine park was "clearly unacceptable" under environmental laws.
It is believed Mr Burke was concerned that noise from the survey could have jeopardised the breeding patterns of the loggerhead turtle, which in turn could have diminished the world heritage values of the Ningaloo Reef.
"This government takes seriously the need to protect our oceans," he said. "This should send a message loud and clear: oil and gas exploration within a world heritage area is unacceptable."
Mr Burke's decision on Apache came just a week after he ordered a delay to oil exploration by Canadian-owned Bight Petroleum near Kangaroo Island off the South Australian coast.
..................
Woodside is pressing ahead with its plans for a gas hub at James Price Point, with one of its contractors applying to build a massive camp just outside Broome to house almost 1000 transient workers.
Skunthorpe Accommodation Camp, 24km north-east of Broome, will house workers building accommodation at James Price Point. It will include a bar and wet mess and will, according to Woodside, ensure that workers do not flood tourist facilities in Broome.
A building application has been lodged with the Shire of Broome by Planning Solutions on behalf of Decmil Group in partnership with Nyimarr.
The application is for an "857-person temporary transient workers' accommodation on Lot 283 Broome Road, Roebuck". The application will go out to public comment tomorrow and be determined by the Kimberley Joint Development Assessment Panel.
Woodside said the main construction workforce would be at a purpose-built accommodation village at the Browse LNG Precinct, 60km north of Broome near James Price Point.
The camp would be the first accommodation available for the proposed development and house Woodside employees and contractors, including construction workers and offshore workers
Woodside said it was planned the camp would operate for up to five years from late this year, subject to a final investment decision, expected in the first half of the year.
Environment group Environs Kimberley called on Premier Colin Barnett to scrap development assessment panels and give back development powers to local government.
Don't believe the hype over the cost of Whitehaven hoax
ReplyDeleteGREEN prankster Jonathan Moylan has been widely blamed for temporarily wiping $314 million off the value of Whitehaven Coal last week, but shareholders lost a fraction of that, no more than $450,360.
His press release was reported by various media outlets and, within minutes, caused an 8.8 per cent collapse in the Whitehaven share price.
Mr Moylan later said the hoax release was the statement ANZ ''should'' have made, but politicians, including government whip Joel Fitzgibbon have called on the corporate regulator to make an example of the anti-coal activist.
..
Mr Moylan issued his fake press release from a laptop in the Leard State Forest, where he has spent more than 160 days camping in protest against three planned coal projects, including Maules Creek. He is being investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Whitehaven is considering legal action against him.
Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, after being called in for questioning by ASIC, Mr Moylan would not comment on the hoax but said ''the costs to the community if the Maules Creek mine goes ahead in terms of dislocation of farmers, loss of water and health are far greater than any consequence that I could face''.
..
An ASX spokesman said all trading in Whitehaven shares on the day of the hoax was within its rules and it had received no broker requests for cancellation of the trades.