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.
Posts
What happens when companies ignore the signs and fail to embrace the new technology?
ReplyDeleteThe old top Japanese companies know.Sony,Sharp,Panasonic.Who killed them?Samsung from Korea.
Now Apple is joining them on the scrapheap.
Apple surrendered the title of the world’s most valuable company to Exxon Mobil after concern over slowing growth drove the shares to the biggest loss in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Apple’s 12-month reign as the No. 1 stock ended after the shares slumped 18 per cent this year, worse than any other companies in the benchmark gauge for US equities. The decline reduced its market capitalization to $US412 billion, below Exxon Mobil’s $US417 billion.
The switch in rankings reflected fading confidence in Apple, whose 15 years of transformation from a near-bankrupt personal-computer maker to a technology leader dominating the smartphone and tablet market helped it become the most valuable US company ever in 2012. Apple shares have fallen by 37 per cent from a record in September amid concern that mounting costs and competition may curtail growth.
Woodside should heed those last few words..."mounting costs and competition may curtail growth"
Coleman worked for Exxon.
How did they get to No. 1?
Very strict with their capital investments.
Ensuring a good return.
South Korea's,Samsung,and France's Total,cannot resist Iran's cheap oil.
ReplyDeleteSINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co has revived a contract to buy Iranian oil after a year's hiatus, as thin margins in plastics make the cheap fuel from Iran hard to resist, people familiar with the deal said on Friday.
Stringent U.S. and European sanctions aimed at reducing Iran's oil income and forcing Tehran to curb its nuclear programme have made shipping and paying for the oil hard, halving the Islamic Republic's crude exports.
The deal is a rare example of a buyer returning to the market for Iranian oil despite the obstacles arising from sanctions and efforts by Western powers to stem the flow.
After jarring interruptions in exports from Iran last year that included a halt in shipments to top consumers Japan and South Korea, importers have found ways to keep oil flowing without violating sanctions.
The allure of cheap oil and improved margins has made it worthwhile for the South Korean joint venture between two big international firms to find ways around difficulties.
The deal may save Samsung Total as much as $6.7 million in costs, according to Reuters calculations.
"The deal can be easily understood if you look at Samsung Total's financial situation," according to a government source in Seoul with direct knowledge of the matter.
The company is a joint venture between South Korea's Samsung Group and French energy giant Total .
..
Replacing the Iranian oil forced up Samsung Total's input costs, contributing to a fall in operating profits, sources said. Those profits fell 90 percent in the second-quarter of 2012, according to the company's regulatory filings. The company switched to more expensive Australian and Russian condensate last year, sources said.
..
Kangan is usually priced $1 or $2 per barrel cheaper than one of the alternatives, which is condensate from Australia's North West Shelf (NWS), traders said. Without any additional discount, the price difference means the Kangan cargo for March cost anything between $280,000 and $560,000 less than NWS.
....................................
Karoon strikes oil off Brazil
MELBOURNE'S Karoon Gas has made an encouraging start to its push into offshore Brazilian exploration, notching up an oil strike with the drilling of its first well in the Santos Basin, one with the proud heritage name of Kangaroo 1.
Karoon is a $1.3 billion company, due mainly to its 40 per cent share in the Conoco Phillips-led gas joint venture in the Browse Basin off the coast of Western Australia.
The Poseidon/Kronos discoveries in that joint venture have confirmed the joint venture as an LNG player in the Browse, with upper-end expectations that as much as 15 trillion cubic feet of gas could be proved up in the permits over time.
But the near-term interest in Karoon rests with the success or otherwise of its Santos Basin oil hunt, a known "greasy" part of the world.
Before Kangaroo 1 was drilled, outside consultants reckoned it had "gross mean prospective resource" potential of 272 million barrels of oil.
If we didn't have such useless shortsighted developers,could we make anything of this situation?
ReplyDeleteIf only they hadn't "lost" Chinatown.
XIONG LAN grew up poor in post-cultural revolution China atop the vast Tibetan Plateau in the country's remote north-west.
Today, she is halfway through a remarkable 50-day sojourn around Australia.
Having crossed Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra off her list, she is boarding a tour bus headed for the Great Ocean Road on Victoria's surf coast.
Despite a stubbornly strong Australian dollar and most of Europe and North America in the economic doldrums, tourists are arriving in record numbers, with a sharp increase in Chinese visitors more than offsetting declines from other regions.
With Chinese travel growing at an average of 20 per cent a year for the past decade, the annual number of Chinese venturing overseas is expected to exceed 100 million by 2020, according to United Nations estimates.
For Australia, the 635,700 Chinese tourists to have visited in the past year have already seen it overtake Britain to become Australia's second largest source of foreign visitors, behind New Zealand.
Chinese tourists already spend more than anyone else, contributing $3.8 billion to Australia's economy last year.
The influx is forcing an industry that directly employs about half a million people to adapt quickly to a changing mix of visitors.
Large cities are benefiting from the rapidly growing number of Chinese, but those far-flung parts of regional Australia - traditionally well-supported by European and American holidaymakers - are yet to prove as popular.
Garry Crockett, the chairman of tourism consultants China Ready and Accredited, says the industry ''has a long way to go'' before putting itself in a position to ''understand what is required''.
''Is Australia really ready to handle 1 million [Chinese] travellers that are going to be descending on our shores?'' Crockett asks. ''It's very important that we prepare ourselves.''
There have been signs of willingness to innovate. Hotel chain Accor is an example of the hospitality industry making an effort to ensure Asian visitors feel more at home.
Chinese newspapers and television channels are increasingly available in Australian hotel rooms, as are instant-cup noodles. Congee is fast becoming a breakfast-buffet staple. Hotels are hiring more Mandarin speakers, and staff are trained not to check guests into rooms with a number four in them - the number sounds like the word ''death'' in a number of Chinese dialects, including Mandarin.
Andrew Burnes, the founder of Australia's largest inbound tour operator AOT Group, says while those within a day-tour of major capital cities and other popular destinations such as the Gold Coast and Cairns are ''doing well'', regional areas are doing it tougher.
That's partly because they aren't included in the typical 10-day packaged-tour experience offered by Chinese travel agents targeting the budget traveller.
''It is the second-tier regional destination that is continuing to do it tough - Alice Springs, Ayers Rock … Kakadu, Broome would be looking for a big 2013,'' Burnes says. ''They are struggling because of a decline in longer-stay visitors; domestic tourists are travelling overseas and they are expensive destinations to reach.''
..........................
Broome was a beautiful town up until about 1995,when the recession "we had to have" ended for us here.
Since then we have been invaded by the most racsist
scum on the planet,these people have destroyed Broome,and are still hell bent on it's final destruction - turning it into a FIFO mining town hell hole.
Wouldn't it be nice if they all f*cked off to Gladstone tomorrow and took their gas plant with them!
WITH eyes focused on Middle East carriers such as Emirates and Etihad, China's three largest airlines have flown beneath the radar over the past two years as they boosted flights to Australia.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010, China Southern flew 14 times a week to two Australian destinations. Now, Asia's largest airline has 35 weekly return flights to four cities including Sydney and Melbourne, and plans to boost it to 55 services within two years.
For Qantas, Singapore Airlines and other well-established airlines on routes to Australia, the Chinese airlines are the sleeping giants that threaten to dent their earnings. To encourage people to switch, the big Chinese carriers are realising they will have to quickly improve their on-board product.
China Southern plans to be flying new Airbus A330-200s on routes from its base in Guangzhou - China's third-largest city known as Canton - to its four Australian destinations by the end of this year. That will mean lie-flat beds in business class and entertainment screens on each seat in economy.
Advertisement
China Southern's executive vice-president, He Zongkai, says Australia is one of the airline's most important international markets, and it is looking at whether to use Airbus A380 superjumbos or Boeing 787s.
''Our priority this year is to upgrade our products and also upgrade the aircraft types on all of the Australian routes,'' he says. ''However, in the next two years we will be working hard to increase the flight frequency.'' It is also considering whether to make three more Australian cities - Cairns, the Gold Coast and Adelaide - permanent destinations for its planes in the longer term.
The biggest barrier to enticing more Australians to fly via southern China to Europe and other destinations has been the $98 for a one-entry tourist visa if they want to stop over.
Visitors from 45 countries can now stop off in Beijing or Shanghai for 72 hours without having to pay for a visa, and China Southern is lobbying for the same transit visas for Guangzhou.
The relaxing of visa restrictions for Australians is expected to lead to a much larger number of people considering routes via China as an option for flying to Europe.
Following China Southern's aggressive expansion, the Shanghai-based China Eastern has indicated it will boost services this year. It operates 21 flights a week to Australia including Sydney and Melbourne. Sichuan Airlines will become the fifth Chinese airline to fly to Australia later this year.
..................................
Yes,the useless bastards who are destroying this town,and the Eco and Indigenous tourism enterprises with it,can only dream of "what could have been."
They have no imagination because they have no soul.They only love greed,even if it destroys everything and everyone around them.
But,for the rest of us,just imagine living for 10 months of the year in China's suffocating pollution,and then being able to tour the pristine Kimberley.
The Eco Indigenous enterprises would be fully booked years in advance.
Yes we could have a WELL RUN supply base,one that cared about the Roebuck Bay environment.
Only the selfish greed of a well connected few stand between us and that dream.
Common pesticides 'can kill frogs within an hour'
ReplyDeleteNew research suggests the chemicals are playing a significant and previously unknown role in the global decline of amphibians
Widely used pesticides can kill frogs within an hour, new research has revealed, suggesting the chemicals are playing a significant and previously unknown role in the catastrophic global decline of amphibians.
The scientists behind the study said it was both "astonishing" and "alarming" that common pesticides could be so toxic at the doses approved by regulatory authorities, adding to growing criticism of how pesticides are tested.
"You would not think products registered on the market would have such a toxic effect," said Carsten Brühl, at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany. "It is the simplest effect you can think of: you spray the amphibian with the pesticide and it is dead. That should translate into a dramatic effect on populations."
Trenton Garner, an ecologist at the Zoological Society of London, said: "This is a valuable addition to the substantial body of literature detailing how existing standards for the use of agricultural pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers are inadequate for the protection of biodiversity."
Amphibians are the best example of the great extinction of species currently under way, as they are the most threatened and rapidly declining vertebrate group. More than a third of all amphibians are included in the IUCN "red list" of endangered species, with loss of habitat, climate change and disease posing the biggest threats.
Brühl had previously studied how easily frogs can absorb pesticides through their permeable skins, which they can breathe through when underwater. But pesticides are not required to be tested on amphibians, said Brühl: "We could only find one study for one pesticide that was using an exposure likely to occur on farmland."
His team chose widely used fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. The most striking results were for a fungicide called pyraclostrobin, sold as the product Headline by the manufacturer BASF and used on 90 different crops across the world. It killed all the common European frogs used as test animals within an hour when applied at the rate recommended on the label. Other fungicides, herbicides and insecticides also showed acute toxicity, even when applied at just 10% of the label rate, with the insecticide dimethoate, for example, killing 40% of animals within a week.
The study, published on Thursday in Scientific Reports [will be live after embargo], concluded: "The observation of acute mortality in a vertebrate group caused by commercially available pesticides at recommended field rates is astonishing, since 50 years after the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring one would have thought that the development of refined risk-assessment procedures would make such effects virtually impossible."
A Dutch court will on rule on the Shell-Nigeria pollution case on Wednesday, Jan. 30. Specialists think this case could open the door to more compensation claims against international companies.
ReplyDeleteIt is the first time in Dutch history that victims from Shell's host countries have pursued a civil liability claim in the country where Shell has its headquarters, the Netherlands.
In October 2012, four Nigerian villagers took Royal Dutch Shell to court in a landmark pollution case. The fishermen and farmers, together with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, accuse the Anglo-Dutch oil company of polluting land and waterways around their homes in the Niger Delta region.
According to Geert Ritsema, director of the Dutch Friends of the Earth, Shell should be held responsible for the pollution of the Niger Delta region.
Liesbeth Enneking of the Molengraaff Institute for Private Law thinks the Shell-Nigeria case illustrates a trend that started in the late 1990s in the U.S. as "increasing numbers of transnational civil liability cases started to be brought against U.S.-based multinational corporations believed to have been involved in human rights violations perpetrated abroad," Enneking said.
"What we see nowadays is that victims from mostly developing host countries are more frequently pursuing civil liability claims in the home countries of these corporations in relation to damage caused to people and planet elsewhere," Enneking added, pointing out that "these cases are increasingly being brought to court also in other Western societies, such as the UK, Canada, Australia and now also in the Netherlands."
..................................
Inpex revealed Friday that Ichthys LNG is on track to deliver first gas by year-end 2016, with the first steel cutting of the project’s semisubmersible platform conducted by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea Friday.
The 492-foot by 361-foot (150 meter by 110 meter) large central processing facility (CPF) will displace 140,000 tonnes and have a peak gas export rate of 1,657 million standard cubic feet per day, making the semisub platform the largest of its kind.
"This is one of the most exciting parts of the project – the first materialization of what has been many years of hard work; it's when the design comes to life," Inpex's President Director Australia Seiya Ito said in a statement.
The platform's hull will be moored by 28 anchor chains weighing more than 25,000 tonnes, while the project's floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessel will be moored by an additional 15,000 tonnes of anchor chain.
"The total represents more than the yearly worldwide production of large-scale anchor chains," Inpex noted in its disclosure.
Spain's Vicinay is the sole supplier of anchor chains for the Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) Project.
Earlier in the week, the first steel plates of the FPSO vessel's turret were cut in Singapore.
..................................
Jan 25 (LNGJ) - The 173,400 cubic metres capacity LNG carrier, "Sevilla Knutsen", has left the Peru LNG plant with a cargo destined for Japan. This is the second Japanese delivery so far this month. One other cargo has been delivered to the Manzanillo import terminal in Mexico and a fourth to Spain.
....
Jan 25 (LNGJ) - South Korea will receive eight LNG cargoes this month from the Nigeria LNG plant at Bonny Island, according to shipping data. The South Korean government said it planned to increase LNG usage over the next few years by building 18 new power plants, either gas-fired or for coal, to overcome electricity shortages caused by a lack of capacity.
.......
LNG Journal European Spot (MMBtu) Indicator PRICE: $10.30
Henry Hub (MMBtu) PRICE: $3.56 DATE: 25 Jan
NYMEX Gas (MMBtu) PRICE: $3.45 DATE: 25 Jan
LNG Journal East Asian Delivered LNG Indicator PRICE: $16.45