Woodside boss Peter Coleman upbeat about Browse LNG plant | The Australian:
It is believed the prospect of floating LNG has not been discussed by the Browse joint venture, whose retention lease conditions bind it to making a decision on processing the gas through a plant at James Price Point before looking at other options.
"Browse doesn't need a technology breakthrough, this is a cost and execution challenge," Mr Coleman said. "The challenge for the JV is to look at the cost and schedule we've just given them, they'll run through their own process and we'll meet back in a couple of months."
Under previous retention lease conditions imposed by the WA and federal governments, the Browse joint venture had been ordered to evaluate James Price Point by mid-2012.
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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You are evaluating cost tenures and you havnt discussed flng! Cmon peter, not even colon will buy that one
ReplyDeleteYou are evaluating cost tenures and you havnt discussed flng! Cmon peter, not even colon will buy that one
ReplyDeleteNothing new there,Woodsides standard line all along.The JV partners would have to hope Woodsides costings are far more reliable than their environmental surveys!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to hear upbeat comments you would have to read what Coleman is saying about the two Myanmar blocks,Leviathan,Cypress,Canary Islands,Canada,and the direction his expansion plans are taking,all overseas.
They have the NWS future gas supplies to secure as the fields become depleted and less economical.
They have no gas for the Pluto expansion.
They have the Sunrise window closing.
They have to finance their overseas expansion projects.
How many new offices with how many new staff will they need to oversee what is already on their plate?
Then imagine the staff they would need for a challenge like Browse at JPP.
It's a bit like trying to stuff 20 lbs of shit into a 5 lb sack = very messy.
Pickard made the same observation last week,the construction market was cooling because so many projects had been cancelled or put on hold,she then said Shell is looking at starting up the Arrow project.It was thought Shell would partner up on an existing Gladstone plant,however Pickard said it was now likely a standalone plant would be built.The starting price would be more than $20 billion.
And Origin announced a $2 billion blowout at their project yesterday.
Shell has Gorgon,Wheatstone and Prelude on the go.Waiting are Sunrise,Arrow and Browse.
Seems to me no matter how you cut it,Browse at JPP would just tip the scales over too far.
To put it simply,a f#ckup now could be fatal,for Shell as well as Woodside.
That's not to say they wont make one!
Sh*t happens.
Same old same old.
ReplyDeleteHaving sat down with Martin Ferguson to design the mining tax that will not tax,Don Argus,(ex BHP chief),now says the only way to save the country is to slash welfare,pensions etc.,and after 50 years of failing to train up our young people for Australias boom and bust economy,declares youth unemployment a problem.
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Cut welfare 'to protect our future', says Don Argus
BUSINESS community elder Don Argus has warned that the growth in politically popular welfare spending is unsustainable and youth unemployment is one of the greatest economic challenges confronting Australia.
In a speech to be given in Melbourne today and published exclusively in The Weekend Australian, the former BHP Billiton chairman and National Australia Bank chief executive calls for a national discussion about welfare spending, warning that the pension and health costs of an ageing population will add to the structural pressure on the federal budget.
Mr Argus's comments come as the Gillard government, which has abandoned its budget surplus pledge after mining tax revenues fell far below forecasts, looks for deep savings to pay for multi-billion-dollar promises, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme and school funding reforms.
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"I fully acknowledge that this is a contentious area," he says.(Argus)
"Welfare fundamentally involves providing for the needs of those that are less fortunate in our community, funded from those that are better off.
"This is important to the wellbeing of a society. But it is equally important that we periodically reassess whether these arrangements are sustainable and are allocating scarce resources appropriately. We must have a national conversation about our welfare budget and how it could be better calibrated for the challenging period ahead." While he does not point to specific programs - either those payments routinely described as middle-class welfare or social security for the poor - the comments are nonetheless likely to renew a major debate.
The Australian Council of Social Service has been arguing that an increase to income support payments, including the Newstart and Youth allowances, would be both modest and truly affordable at a total cost of $800 million this year and $1.8bn in 2013-14.
Catholic Social Services Australia has also called for an increase to Newstart in the next financial year.
Big business fears it will be targeted in the budget, while miners are fearful of a winding back of tax breaks and rebates on exploration, depreciation and diesel fuel that were considered last year.
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SO DONT TAX US,DONT CUT OUR REBATES,WE WANT IT ALL,GIVE THE PEOPLE NOTHING.
AS WE HAVE SAID BEFORE,WHEN THE W.A. BILL COMES IN IT WILL BE THE SAME DEAL = GET PENSIONERS,NURSES,POLICE,TEACHERS,ETC.,TO PAY IT.
BUT DONT TOUCH THE MINERS.
DONT THEY JUST REMIND YOU OF BIG FAT ,(and in some cases,look like), SPOILED CHILDREN WHO ARE NEVER HAPPY OR SATISFIED UNTIL EVERYTHING IS THEIRS?
ReplyDeleteLIKE A CUCKOO CHICK IN A NEST.
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The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) welcomes the announcement that the Australian Government supports the recommendations on the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) made by the Argus-Ferguson Policy Transition Group (PTG).
....The Government should ensure the Implementation Group is given a real mandate to advise on administrative design and implementation, consistent with maintaining the integrity of the overall package of recommendations. This is needed to avoid unnecessary disputes and to minimise administrative complexities. This process should include further consultation to take account of the unique circumstances of integrated coal-fired power generators.
Two members of the MCA Standing Committee on Taxation, Brian Purdy (Vice President Tax ? Asia Pacific, BHP Billiton and current Chair of the Committee) and Anthony Portas (Head of Tax ? Asia Pacific, Anglo American) are on the Implementation Group.
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Full crediting of royalties is a key feature of the MRRT's design, one that ensures double taxation is avoided and that delivers a measure of stability and predictability to the overall tax burden on coal and iron ore projects, which are already at the upper end of global mining tax rates.
The December 2010 report of Policy Transition Group (PTG) headed by Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Don Argus recommended that the Government legislate full crediting of all current and future State and Territory royalties "so as to provide certainty about the overall tax impost on the coal and iron ore mining industries".
It is worth recalling Minister Martin Ferguson's words from 24 March 2011 specifically when he said "enough is enough" in relation to the constant changes to and speculation about increasing minerals taxation in Australia.
At a joint Press Conference with Treasurer Wayne Swan, Minister Ferguson said: "If you actually go to the body of the report, the Policy Transition Group sent a very clear message to both Commonwealth and State and Territory governments, enough is enough. The system we are locking in today is a fair and balanced outcome which guarantees Australia being attractive from an investment point of view but also says from both a Commonwealth and a state level we can live with this tax regime, don't over egg it in terms of trying to increase the rates of taxation that will now be put in place."
We agree with Minister Ferguson. Enough is enough in relation to the continued obsession with increasing taxes on mining in Australia. We should be looking at how we can be internationally competitive for investment and jobs for the benefit of Australians today and future generations rather than how we can keep carving up the pie.
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THREE of Australia's most respected business leaders have warned that a clawback of federal refunds given to companies for hikes to state mining royalties could lead to an exodus of investors to projects overseas.
Wayne Swan has attacked the states for increasing royalties, and a review into the carve-up of GST revenues is expected to recommend capping the federal refunds for state royalties that are made available under the new minerals resource rent tax, risking a stoush with the resources sector in an election year.
Former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus toldThe Weekend Australian: "You certainly don't want to start double-taking the resources companies because you will have no one investing capital here then. As it is, people are looking at the sovereign risk and starting to wonder what's going on."
Is there a touch of panic creeping into the "who is the greenest" stakes?
ReplyDelete..
WA Labor says it would create a new marine park and a national park in the Kimberley if it wins the March election.
Mark McGowan says a Labor government would create the Great North Kimberley Marine Park and the Fitzroy River National Park to protect the Mitchell Plateau.
He says protecting the Plateau from mining is essential.
"We will commence negotiations with the mining lease holders on the Mitchell Plateau to ensure, overtime, the Mitchell Plateau is put into a national park," he said.
"The Mitchell Plateau is beautiful, it is a beautiful area.
"We would hope that the companies that hold the bauxite leases will reach the understanding that it can't be mined and so we will commence negotiations that no one should ever mine contemplate mining the Mitchell Plateau."
However, the Premier Colin Barnett says the government is already negotiating with mining companies to protect the area.
"Those negotiations are going on and have been going on for two years," he said.
While going twice as fast in the other direction.
DeleteThe WA Liberal party will spend $20-million to help fast track mining approvals if it is re-elected to govern in a fortnight.
The party plans to create a database of environmental and heritage information, which mining companies will be able to access online.
It will also expand an approvals tracking scheme it introduced during its current term of government that allows proponents to track the progress of their approval, regardless of which government department is doing the evaluation.
Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore says the two policies will make it easier for mining companies to get their approvals processed.
"They'll be able to see what work's been done in the past," he said.
"[They] can access that, and use it, and save having to repeat a lot of the approvals processes that they would have had to do if that information was not available."
The State's peak mining lobby has welcomed the pledge.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy says both policies will encourage future growth and investment across the sector.
Gas Gas everywhere - but none of it is cheap!
ReplyDeleteSANTOS has signed east coast domestic gas deals for beyond 2015 at close to export parity as $70 billion worth of liquefied natural gas projects at Gladstone come closer to production, exposing Australian domestic gas buyers to export prices.
Santos chief David Knox, who delivered a better than expected full-year profit report yesterday, said gas deals were already being signed at the "higher end" of a $6-$9 a gigajoule range, up from current prices of $3 to $4.
"We have signed some small deals in the higher end of that range and we'll continue to sign those," Mr Knox said.
He said they were shorter-term contracts of two to three years.
Mr Knox said the prices were for gas received at a hub such as Moomba, meaning transport costs to the end user were extra.
Last year The Australian reported Origin Energy had signed a gas deal with Chinese-controlled, Melbourne-based miner MMG that would rise to nearly $9 a gigajoule in the latter part of the contract.
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ANOTHER ONE OF FERGUSONS "BIG END OF TOWN" PLOTS.
WELL I ALWAYS KNEW "RATSLINGER" AND HIS LOUSY BROTHER WERE ROTTEN - JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM.
ReplyDeleteHERE'S THE PROOF.
AND NO WONDER SO MANY INNOCENT KIDS HAVE WOUND UP DEAD,RUINED BY ALCHOHOL AND DRUGS,LIVES DESTROYED AND NO ONE TO TURN TO.
PELL SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR HIS ROLE IN THIS AS WELL,NO MORE HIDING BEHIND THE CROSS.
A SOCIETY,CULTURE,LAW,ALL UNDERMINED BY THESE PEOPLE.GENERATIONS JAILED AND COMMITTED TO ASYLUMS.
ALL PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD.
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AUSTRALIA'S Cardinal George Pell yesterday called on the Vatican press office to respond "in some constructive way" to reports of an internal investigation by three senior cardinals that told Pope Benedict XVI about an insidious web of blackmail, corruption and homosexual sex inside the Vatican.
Italy's La Repubblica newspaper linked Benedict's resignation with a top secret 300-page dossier prepared by Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko and Italian Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi into the "Vatileaks" affair, which saw the Pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, arrested and jailed for stealing and leaking papal documents.
None of the three cardinals will take part in the conclave because they are over 80 years of age, but they are expected to brief those voting about their findings.
According to La Repubblica, the report was "an exact map of the mischief and the bad fish" inside the Holy See, with the cardinals finding that one faction of Vatican officials, "united by sexual orientation", had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature", which the paper said was a reference to blackmail.
It quoted a source close to the cardinals as saying that everything centred on "non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments", which forbid adultery (included homosexual sex) and stealing. The report also mentioned numerous venues in and around Rome where clandestine encounters took place, including a sauna, a beauty parlour and a university residence.
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The report was handed to the Pope on December 17 last year and has been locked in a Vatican safe, awaiting Benedict's successor.
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As cardinals head to Rome for a series of meetings ahead of the conclave, controversy surrounds the attendance of retired Los Angeles cardinal Roger Mahony. Cardinal Mahony was stood down from all church duties earlier this month by his successor over his mishandling of sexual abuse complaints.
Tomorrow, Benedict will greet the crowd that will gather in St Peter's Square for the final Angelus address of his pontificate. More than 30,000 have applied for tickets for his General Audience in the square on Wednesday.
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A HUGE PART OF WHY KIDS HAVE NO RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY.
(Broome Shire take note!)