Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Check it out - the Kimberley was projected on to the Sydney Opera House last night as part of the Samsung Opera House Projections competition!

Thanks to Glenn Walker for the gorgeous picture.



4 comments:

  1. Extracts from the Latest from Buru Energy March 31 Quarterly Report.

    Planning for the upcoming 2013 Appraisal and Exploration Program.
    "During the quarter the joint venture continued planning for the 2013 Appraisal and Exploration Program. Buru and Mitsubishi are currently finalising agreement on the drilling program for the remainder of 2013 and for 2014. Those discussions include agreement for tendering for a “fit for purpose” rig for a two year drilling
    program which is likely to include vertical oil exploration wells, horizontal oil and gas appraisal wells, and deep vertical gas exploration and appraisal wells. Despite its excellent service to date, Ensign Rig#32 is not the most suitable rig for this extensive forward program and the rig has been released following completion of the Yulleroo 4 well. Details of the forward drilling program will be released in due course once the program is agreed and rig selection finalised."

    ‘horizontal oil and gas wells’, eg. fraccing

    Approvals Process.
    "During the quarter the Company continued the regulatory approval processes required for the 2013 Appraisal and Exploration Program. Detailed operational, environmental and health and safety management plans are being submitted for assessment by the DMP as they are prepared. Discussions also continued with Traditional Owners on whose lands the 2013 Appraisal and Exploration Programs is being conducted."

    FOI anyone?

    Unconventional appraisal program.
    "The Company has also reported that it has been in discussion with a number of parties who have expressed interest in participating in its unconventional oil and gas resources. These discussions are continuing, but the Company does not need to introduce a farmin partner at this time to progress its Laurel BCGS evaluation to the next stage, and will only do so in future on terms that are commercially and operationally appropriate.
    The planning for a reservoir stimulation and well test flow program of the wells drilled to date by the Joint Venture is being advanced, with technical analysis substantially completed and operational and logistical analysis well advanced. Approval processes will be commenced once the other details are finalised."

    http://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/announcements.do?by=asxCode&asxCode=BRU&timeframe=D&period=W










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  2. Extracts from Buru Energy Company Insight, April 18 2013.

    Executive Director of Buru Energy, Eric Streitberg.
    "There was an unfortunate incident last year that involved a reported disturbance of some artefacts by the crew preparing for the seismic survey. This was despite the clearances that had been obtained from the Traditional Owners to access that area, and the fact there were no registered sites in the area. The incident was referred to the Department of Indigenous Affairs by the Traditional Owners, but no resolution has been reached to date.
    We are very conscious of our responsibilities in this area, and are working with the traditional owners to re-commence the 3D with suitable safeguards in place, including exclusion zones around areas identified as having cultural significance. Ensuring alignment with the Traditional Owners and respecting their heritage and sites of cultural significance is of the highest priority for Buru, and we are actively working with the community to ensure there is no potential for repeating this incident in the future."

    I think I’ve heard all this before somewhere?
    They must have borrowed Woodsides handbook, “How to piss people off in the Kimberley.”

    Executive Director of Buru Energy, Eric Streitberg
    "We have delineated a very large gas resource that is held in fairly tight rocks where we have encountered it so far. I must emphasis that this is tight gas, generally up to three kilometers below the surface, and at least two kilometres deeper than any aquifers. This is not coal seam gas, and it has a very different development process.
    So we are currently doing the planning for a reservoir stimulation test program, what’s known as a frac job, to see what effect that has on the gas flow rates from the wells drilled to date by the Joint Venture. This will be together with a flow test program of these wells. The technical analysis of the data we have gathered from the wells as we drilled them is substantially completed, and the operational and logistical analysis is also well advanced. The data we have gathered so far, including the positive results of the trial frac we undertook in 2010, are very encouraging for the development of a tight gas reservoir system. We will be commencing the government approval process and the community engagement and information processes once the technical and operational details are agreed."

    ‘reservoir stimulation program’, I think he is stimulating himself.
    Doesn’t matter how deep the well is if the bore casing fails.(and they all do eventually.)
    Doesn’t matter how deep the well is, you still need millions of litres of water, which is thus contaminated.
    Doesn’t matter how deep the well is, your still drilling through our aquifers.
    Doesn’t matter how deep the well is, the landscape will be forever ruined.

    Can’t wait for the ‘community engagement and information process’, get the banners ready!


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  3. Furthermore Streitberg is Chairman of the APPEA Board, holder of the APPEA Reg Sprigg medal and is Chairman of the Marine Parks and Reserves Authority of Western Australia.

    Hold on, what’s the last one?
    That’s right APRA, which has been responsible for Barnett’s marine parks in the Kimberley. This is putting the fox in the chicken pen to look after the chooks, and clearly a conflict of interest, as mentioned by the warhorse Robin Chappel but ignored in WA Parliament in 2009.

    http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/47f22ff5e3e0f5c7c825763100135d58/$FILE/C38%20S1%2020090820%20p6280b-6281a.pdf

    Also note what Barnett said about old mate Wayne Bergmann in Parliament on April 17, 2013.

    Mr M. McGOWAN: Why then, if that is the Premier’s attitude, did Wayne Bergmann say about the Premier’s process on 15 April —
    “You can’t come in and pulverise Aboriginal people into a corner so they have no choice but to sign off on deals — you don’t create healthy societies by doing that,” …
    Why did he say that? And I will continue; I will quote —

    Mr C.J. Barnett: I don’t know, because I just had a meeting with Wayne half an hour ago.

    A meeting with Wayne half an hour ago. Wayne no longer works for KLC, only KRED, so why is he meeting with the Premier? Oh dear, here we go again!

    http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/ff144440e698e30648257b500045a50e/$FILE/A39%20S1%2020130417%20p2c-21a.pdf

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  4. It's not good.

    Shell vs. Kiobel: Green Light for Multinational Human Rights Abuses

    In Kiobel vs. Royal Dutch Petroleum, the US Supreme Court has ruled that Nigerian nationals do not have the right to sue the oil company for alleged rights abuses overseas, dashing the hopes of Esther Kiobel, who filed her lawsuit against Shell in 2002 shortly before she became a US citizen.

    Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts cited the Alien Tort Statue of 1789, which does not extend to violations outside the US.

    Essentially, then, this major victory for oil and gas giants operating as multinational companies is thanks to a law that is over two centuries old.

    Kiobel, along with 11 other Nigerians, was suing Shell for collusion with the government regarding a brutal crackdown on residents of the Niger Delta that included torture and execution. In 1995, in a kangaroo case with trumped-up charges, the “Ogoni Nine” were executed in Nigeria. Kiobel’s husband was among those executed.

    .

    According to ISA Intel, which has conducted tactical investigations in the Niger Delta, oil companies have largely bought out the Nigerian government to turn the other way to environmental and human rights abuses. “Graft and corruption are unbridled. Those who will not be bought are considered enemies of the state, and this is what largely appears to have happened to the ‘Ogoni Nine’,” experts with the private intelligence company told Oilprice.com.

    Other multinationals with litigation pending will be eyeing this optimistically, not the least Exxon Mobil Corp for its actions in Indonesia. Exxon is being sued by 15 Indonesian villagers for the death and torture of people in Aceh province between 1999 and 2001. The plaintiffs claim that Exxon hired Indonesian soldiers who had committed past abuses to guard their natural gas facility.

    In July 2011, a US federal appeals court ruled that the case could go forward and has placed Exxon’s request to review this decision on hold while the Nigeria-Kiobel case was still being heard. For now, it remains unclear what the implications of the Shell ruling will be for the Exxon-Indonesia case.

    ..........


    BP Oil Spill Worse Than Thought

    The extent to which the 2010 explosion and collapse of Deepwater Horizon has affected the Gulf of Mexico and land abutting it has been obscured, writes Mark Hertsgaard, who reports on an ongoing trial against British Petroleum in Louisiana. "BP was warned in advance about the safety risks of attempting to cover up its leaking oil. Nevertheless, BP proceeded. Furthermore, BP appears to have withheld these safety warnings, as well as protective measures, both from the thousands of workers hired for the cleanup and from the millions of Gulf Coast residents who stood to be affected. ... The most astonishing thing about BP’s cover-up? It was carried out in plain sight, right in front of the world’s uncomprehending news media (including, I regret to say, this reporter)."

    ..........


    Fracking disclosure site contains “serious deficiencies,” Harvard study says

    A government mandated website on which oil and gas companies disclose what chemicals they pump into the ground through hydraulic fracturing techniques has “serious deficiencies,” according to a study by the Harvard Law School released Tuesday.

    The study found the website FracFocus.org lacked transparency and gave companies “overly broad” authority to determine what and what they did not report in the name of trade secrets. The report also asserted there was little to no oversight by the website or the 11 states that require companies to file disclosures there.

    In the case of Texas, a review of its wells listed on the site found that 29 percent of the chemical identification numbers reported did not represent actual chemicals.

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