"It will mean green groups can't take action against approved projects on those grounds in future, because the grounds were largely technical and don't go to the matter of environmental protection which is what the Act is all about."
The proposed Venture Minerals' Riley Creek mine is currently before the courts.
Situated within the Tarkine region, the proposal triggered the EPBC Act and was given Commonwealth Approval this year.
Save the Tarkine has challenged this project in the Federal Supreme Court, on the basis that the minister failed to consider the bio-conservation advice.
Head of the organisation Scott Jordan says the timing of the introduction of this amendment could have implications for that case.
"It's odd that the current minister is putting forward that amendment when next month we're actually having this case heard," he said.
"It begs the question, is the intent to avoid another embarrassing court decision?"
Photo Damian Kelly
Posts
They can change these laws all they want or do away with them altogether it will not stop the planet reacting to the changes we are making.
ReplyDeleteSuper typhoons, extreme bushfire events, ice free Arctic, drought and flood will all raise a mighty clamour no one can put down.
This is the backdrop Abbott and his government will have to bear.
There are too many things happening no amount of cheap talk or denial can hide.
For example :
Google "oceans 26% more acidic" - 2,590,000 results.
Top 5 :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24904143
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/14/world/ocean-acidification-report/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/11/14/2942311/ocean-acidification-marine-species/
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/ocean-acidification-rapid-pickling-of-worlds-oceans-49133
https://www.facebook.com/cnn/posts/10152097238221509
All in the last 16 hours.
..
Think progress 13 hours ago ;
The Rapid Pickling Of The World’s Oceans Affects More Than Just Shellfish
Hot and sour might be a delicious combination if you’re ordering soup in a Vietnamese restaurant, but when it comes to the world’s oceans, hot and sour is a deadly and destructive duo.
According to research just released by a panel of over 500 of the world’s leading experts on ocean acidification, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are acidifying the oceans at an “unprecedented rate, faster than at any time in the last 300 million years. Since the start of the industrial revolution, oceans have become 26% more acidic.
By 2100, ocean acidification is predicted to increase by 170 percent if current rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue. More acidic water will make the oceans unlivable for about 30 percent of ocean species. About one quarter of annual CO2 emissions from human activities currently end up in the ocean, or about 24 million tons of CO2 every day.
Some of the species most at risk are mollusks like oysters and clams, and corals, but any species that needs a hard shell to survive may be affected. Oyster farmers in the Northwest are already seeing the impact. The global cost of the decline in mollusks could be $130 billion by 2100.
Coral reefs are already imperiled by warming oceans which cause coral bleaching. But ocean acidification alone is likely to cause reef building to cease by the end of the 21st century on the current CO2 emissions trajectory. All the fish that depend on corals for habitat will also be indirectly affected by ocean acidification.
Other commercially important species like crab and lobster have not been shown to be adversely affected by more acidic oceans, but rising water temperatures do make lobsters extremely vulnerable to shell disease.
“People who rely on the ocean’s ecosystem services are especially vulnerable and may need to adapt or cope with ocean acidification impacts within decades,” the report says. “Tropical coral reef loss will affect tourism, food security and shoreline protection for many of the world’s poorest people.”
The effects of the unprecedentedly sour oceans are being felt the most in the Arctic and Antarctic, because frigid waters can hold more CO2 and thus cause more rapid acidification. Within the next six years, ten percent of the Arctic will be a no go for organisms that have calcium carbonate shells, and by the turn of the century, all of the Arctic will be lost habitat for these species. This change of course impacts not only shelled creatures, but all the fish, birds and marine mammals which depend on them for food.
And there’s one more catch to keep in mind — as ocean acidity increases, the oceans’ capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere decreases, which means that the enormous carbon sink that has helped to moderate the warming climate thus far will become less and less effective.
The review of the state of the science will be formally presented at the U.N. Conference of the Parties climate change meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on November 18.
Change all the laws - do away with them altogether.
ReplyDeleteIt won't matter.
No amount of denial can hide what is happening to the planet.
Super typhoons, extreme bushfires, ice free Arctic, drought and flood will all raise such a clamour Abbott and his government will look like the biggest bunch of fools ever to get elected.
...
The Rapid Pickling Of The World’s Oceans Affects More Than Just Shellfish
Hot and sour might be a delicious combination if you’re ordering soup in a Vietnamese restaurant, but when it comes to the world’s oceans, hot and sour is a deadly and destructive duo.
According to research just released by a panel of over 500 of the world’s leading experts on ocean acidification, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are acidifying the oceans at an “unprecedented rate, faster than at any time in the last 300 million years. Since the start of the industrial revolution, oceans have become 26% more acidic.
By 2100, ocean acidification is predicted to increase by 170 percent if current rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue. More acidic water will make the oceans unlivable for about 30 percent of ocean species. About one quarter of annual CO2 emissions from human activities currently end up in the ocean, or about 24 million tons of CO2 every day.
Some of the species most at risk are mollusks like oysters and clams, and corals, but any species that needs a hard shell to survive may be affected. Oyster farmers in the Northwest are already seeing the impact. The global cost of the decline in mollusks could be $130 billion by 2100.
Coral reefs are already imperiled by warming oceans which cause coral bleaching. But ocean acidification alone is likely to cause reef building to cease by the end of the 21st century on the current CO2 emissions trajectory. All the fish that depend on corals for habitat will also be indirectly affected by ocean acidification.
Other commercially important species like crab and lobster have not been shown to be adversely affected by more acidic oceans, but rising water temperatures do make lobsters extremely vulnerable to shell disease.
“People who rely on the ocean’s ecosystem services are especially vulnerable and may need to adapt or cope with ocean acidification impacts within decades,” the report says. “Tropical coral reef loss will affect tourism, food security and shoreline protection for many of the world’s poorest people.”
The effects of the unprecedentedly sour oceans are being felt the most in the Arctic and Antarctic, because frigid waters can hold more CO2 and thus cause more rapid acidification. Within the next six years, ten percent of the Arctic will be a no go for organisms that have calcium carbonate shells, and by the turn of the century, all of the Arctic will be lost habitat for these species. This change of course impacts not only shelled creatures, but all the fish, birds and marine mammals which depend on them for food.
And there’s one more catch to keep in mind — as ocean acidity increases, the oceans’ capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere decreases, which means that the enormous carbon sink that has helped to moderate the warming climate thus far will become less and less effective.
The review of the state of the science will be formally presented at the U.N. Conference of the Parties climate change meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on November 18.
Who's running the place?
ReplyDeleteSERCO at it again!
Christmas Island detention centre worker sacked over sexual relationship with detainee
The company that runs the detention centre on Christmas Island has sacked one employee over a sexual relationship with a detainee and sent three others back to the mainland for misconduct.
The incident, involving a Serco employee, was also investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
Separately, three members of Serco's emergency response team at the centre were taken off their rotation for drinking alcohol and sent back to Australia.
The team is deployed in volatile situations, including in the event of unrest among the detainees, and there is a zero-alcohol policy for members who are on call.
The British-owned company - which has roughly 200 employees on Christmas Island - initially denied that the staff member had been sacked for sexual misconduct, but later admitted to the ABC this was the case.
..............
Christmas Island detention centre worker sacked over sexual relationship with detainee
Serco spokesman last night insisted members not 'disciplined'
The company also initially avoided confirming that the three staff members had been caught drinking while on call.
Its spokesman last night continued to insist that the members had not been "disciplined", saying that they had merely been rotated out of the team.
The incidents - all in recent weeks - are an embarrassment for Serco, which has recently sacked guards at a British detention centre for having sex with detainees.
Asylum seeker advocates say any sexual relationship between a guard and detainee is an abuse of power.
"A sexual relationship between a guard and a detainee is like a relationship between a student and a teacher, between a doctor and a patient - the power relationship is such an imbalance, it can never be acceptable, it is exploitative," the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's
Pamela Curr said.
The revelations also cap a tumultuous week for the Federal Government on the issue of asylum seekers, with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison forced to fend off ferocious criticism of the Government's chokehold on information on boat arrivals.
A spokesman for Mr Morrison said: "This alleged conduct is appalling and completely unacceptable and the Minister will be seeking an explanation directly from the Serco Australia chief executive and an assurance on how such alleged events would be prevented from occurring."
Mining group welcomes 'one stop' mine approvals process
ReplyDeleteNational mining group the AMMA is welcoming the Coalitions intention to streamline the mine approvals process.
On Friday 60 representatives from Tasmania's mining companies gathered in Hobart at the Australian Mines and Metals Association conference.
CEO of the national resource industry employer group Steve Knott is hoping the Abbott government will help increase investment in the mining industry with it's approach to both industrial relations and mine approvals.
"We're really looking for them to do what they said they would do in their policy on the IR front, there are some key issues that will help attract investment to the country not just Tasmania", he said.
Steve Knott says there have been some bureaucratic processes that have slowed new mines and they are looking for streamlining the approval processes.
"[Tony Abbott] emphasised this issue of having one stop approval processes.
So that doesn't mean any of the environment or any of the safety issues are downgraded in any way.
It's about basically saying, lets have one regulator deal with it.
So if it's the State government, or the Federal government, why should you have to do both and have lots of documents and lots of lawyers, lots of court proceedings.
So there will be a streamlining of that process at the Federal level and I understand the State Opposition here should they win government are very keen to look at that and work co operatively with the Federal government" he said.
Watch the other hand.....
ReplyDelete.
Gladstone Ports bid to dump dredge spoils on Great Barrier Reef axed
OFFSHORE dumping of 12 million cubic metres of dredge spoils into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area has been banned by the government.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said he had ordered the Queensland government and Gladstone Ports Corporation to consider only onshore dumping of dredge spoils from the construction of a proposed $400 million second sea lane. Mr Hunt said the port and state government had agreed to use the dredge spoils to reclaim further land in Gladstone Harbour for future port development.
It was hoped that additional land in Gladstone Harbour would provide an alternative to the controversial Balaclava Island development site in Keppel Bay. However, under the Abbott government's new cumulative impact strategy for reef protection - whereby projects are assessed in relation to the effect of all projects along the Queensland coast rather than in isolation - the rejection of offshore dumping of 12 million cubic metres of dredge spoils at Gladstone **** would make it easier to approve offshore dumping of spoils to expand the Abbot Point coal terminal, 25km north of Bowen.****
Mr Hunt said he had not made any decision on Abbot Point, which is due to be delivered by December 13. Reef health and offshore dumping have become highly controversial issues, with concerns raised by the World Heritage Committee and environment groups about the possible impact on the Great Barrier Reef.
The latest research by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has shown that dredge spoils spread further and have a bigger impact than previously thought. Whitsundays tourism operators have spoken out about the expansion of Abbot Point, fearing the impact it would have on nearby water quality and the reef.
The Abbott government said it had made the Great Barrier Reef a key environmental priority, with increased funding for water quality and crown-of-thorns starfish eradication. A joint strategic plan has been published, which the federal and state governments hope will encourage UNESCO not to put the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area on its "in-danger" list next year.
The World Heritage body has expressed alarm about the pace of development at Gladstone and plans for new port developments along the Queensland coast with associated dredging. Whitsunday Charter Boat Industry Association president Tony Brown said tourism operators were concerned that the science on the impact of dumping dredge spoil offshore was uncertain.
Lend Lease directors were questioned at the company's annual meeting in Sydney yesterday about the company's investment in the proposed Abbot Point expansion. Chairman David Crawford said no decision had been made on the project but he defended the company's record on sustainability issues.
Dredging at Gladstone Harbour for the $33 billion Curtis Island LNG developments has been surrounded in controversy because of an outbreak of fish disease. Onshore dumping has also been controversial. Gladstone Ports Corporation had previously conceded environmental problems caused by a "leaking" bund wall, which was designed to retain dredge spoils.
A duplicate sea lane in Gladstone has been given special project status by the Queensland government but not yet confirmed.
An environmental impact statement is due to be lodged by Gladstone Ports Corporation next year. Dredging was expected to start in 2014-15. Mr Hunt said after consulting the state government "I have instructed the Gladstone Ports Corporation not to consider dumping any material from the capital dredging project in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park".
"In particular, I have requested that the Ports Corporation give priority to examining land reclamation and on-shore recovery of any spoil," Mr Hunt said.
Cameron links typhoon Haiyan to climate change
ReplyDeletePrime minister seemingly endorses stance that global warming is creating more extreme weather patterns
There is growing evidence that climate change is causing more extreme weather disasters such as the Philippines typhoon, David Cameron said.
In remarks likely to infuriate the green sceptics in his party, the prime minister gave his first acknowledgement that global warming may be linked to increasingly intense storms across the world.
The remarks are Cameron's strongest defence of climate change science for a while, after repeated accusations that he has retreated from his pre-election pledge to run the greenest government ever.
Despite urging people to "vote blue, go green" in 2010, he has not given a full speech on the issue nor attended a UN environment summit since becoming prime minister.
Under pressure from many backbenchers, he has tightened planning controls on windfarms and pledged to "roll back" green subsidies on bills, leading to fears of dwindling support for the renewables industry.
However, Cameron spoke out on the need to tackle global warming at the Commonwealth summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after typhoon Haiyan killed at least 4,000 people and caused devastation across the Philippines.
Asked on Fridaywhether climate change was linked to the Philippines disaster, Cameron said: "I'll leave the scientists to speak for themselves about the link between severe weather events and climate change. But the evidence seems to me to be growing. As a practical politician, I think the sensible thing is to say let's take preventative and mitigating steps given the chances this might be the case."
He added: "Scientists are giving us a very certain message. Even if you're less certain than the scientists, it makes sense to act both in terms of trying to prevent and mitigate."
His comments also coincide with the United Nations talks on climate change in Warsaw, which has seen Japan slash its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and Australia fail to send a minister to the conference for the first time in 16 years.
The Philippines has made an impassioned plea at the talks for nations to cut their emissions and redouble their efforts to reach an international agreement on stopping temperatures rising.
Amazon deforestation increased by one-third in past year
ReplyDeleteSatellite analysis reveals that since 2000 an area equal to 50 football pitches has been destroyed every minute since 2000
Destruction of the Amazon rainforest has increased by almost one-third in the past year, reversing a decade-long trend of better protection for the world's greatest rainforest.
Environmentalists blamed a controversial weakening of legal protections passed by President Dilma Rousseff for the increase in deforestation by loggers and farmers. But the environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, rejected this, saying the overall trend was "positive" and that eliminating illegal deforestation remained the government's goal.
The set-back in the Amazon came as the first global, high-resolution, satellite analysis of global deforestation revealed that since 2000 an area equal to 50 football pitches has been destroyed every minute. The total loss is 10 times the area of the UK, with only a third being replaced by natural and planted reforestation, and the destruction is accelerating in the tropics.
The razing of forests is a major contributor to the emissions that drive climate change. Trees provide a vital store of carbon, as well as providing livelihoods for a billion people. But deforestation has more than doubled in Indonesia, Paraguay, Malaysia and Cambodia, largely due to illegal logging.
In the Amazon, the use of satellite data has helped the government slash deforestation by 80% since 2003-4 by allowing police to pinpoint illegal activity in the vast forest, which is bigger than western Europe. But the 5,800km2 in 2012-13 was a 28% increase on the record-low in the previous year.
Paulo Adario, leader of Greenpeace's Amazon campaign, said the spike was scandalous: "The government can't be surprised by this increase in deforestation, given that their own action is what's pushing it. The change in the Forest Code and the resulting amnesty for those who illegally felled the forest sent the message that such crimes have no consequences."
The revised Forest Code was passed in 2012 after more than a decade of efforts by Brazil's powerful agricultural lobby. The changes eased restrictions for smaller landowners, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks, and allowed those who had illegally felled land to not face penalties if they signed an agreement to replant trees, which many environmentalists say is unlikely to be enforced.
Adario added that the push by Rousseff government's for infrastructure projects in the Amazon region was also a cause, noting that much of the recent destruction was along a government-improved highway running through Para and Mato Grosso states, which eases the transport of illegal timber. Another factor is high global food prices which drives forest clearance for cattle and soya farming.
"There are various ways to spin this figure, but there's no way it's good news," said Dr Doug Boucher, an expert on tropical forests at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Certainly the amendments to the Forest Code were one reason. It's a warning that although deforestation can be reduced rapidly and dramatically by strong policies, it can also increase again when those policies are weakened."
Brazil has demanded funding from rich nation's to cut deforestation and has been sensitive to criticism of its effort to develop and improve the living standards of its 200 million people. In 2009, the then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said: "I don't want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree. We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2013/nov/15/global-deforestation-10-hot-spots-on-google-earth-in-pictures
ReplyDeleteGlobal deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures
Earth has lost more than half a million square miles of forest between 2000 and 2012. Analysis of 650,000 satellite images, published in the journal Science, reveal the extent of loss and recovery – Brazil’s success in the Amazon is offset by deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia and Angola. The colour-coded maps here show the changes: green is forest cover, red is lost forest, blue is forest gained and pink is forests both lost and gained in the period
Shell, Sinopec Drilling for Shale Gas in Central China
ReplyDeleteBEIJING, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell and China's Sinopec Corp are drilling exploration wells to test shale potential in central China, where little prospecting for the fuel has been done, company officials said on Thursday.
China, believed to hold the world's largest shale gas resource, has drawn international firms like Shell, Exxon Mobil , Chevron, Eni and Total to hunt for the unconventional gas, with Shell the first among them to land a production sharing contract.
Shell and Sinopec have completed drilling Liye-1, one of three exploration wells planned in a joint evaluation of shale resources at Xiang E Xi (XEX) block, at the junction of central Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in east central China. The joint study agreement (JSA) on the XEX block was entered into in June 2012 but has not been widely reported.
A Sinopec official said the Liye-1 well was completed last August but was subsequently sealed after results from hydraulic fracturing were not "very satisfactory". The official declined to be named as he's not authorized to speak to media.
Shell and Sinopec are now drilling the second well, Engye-1, and a third one is also planned, officials said. Sinopec is the operator of the project. China, still in the early stages of developing the fuel, has drilled less than 150 exploration wells, mostly in and around the Sichuan basin in southwest China.
Commercial output is tiny. In Sichuan, Shell is conducting appraisal drilling of the Fushun-Yongchuan block in partnership with top Chinese oil and gas producer PetroChina .
The two are looking to start commercial production after 2014. Shell secured China's first shale gas product sharing contract in March last year to develop the Sichuan block, hoping that getting in early would allow it to be the biggest beneficiary from the sort of shale boom that has transformed the U.S. energy market.
Much of the $1 billion investment Shell spent this year on China's upstream business went to Sichuan, Shi Jiangtao, a Shell China spokesperson said in an email. A former Shell executive said last year that Shell plans to spend at least that much a year exploring China's shale gas. The major in August revealed a $2.2 billion charge against its weak U.S shale business and abandoned its 2017 goal to deliver 4 million barrels per day of total production.
CEO Peter Voser said in October it will take a longer time than expected for Shell to reap benefits from its global shale gas projects due to poor short-term results.
http://www.aseanaffairs.com/press_releases/australia_s_northwest_shelf
ReplyDeleteAustralia’s Northwest Shelf and a Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline
Australia's controversial James Price Point Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant could mark a turning point in Asia’s energy future.
Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)
A Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline
Asia's planned hodge-podge of LNG projects.
A Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline.
If environmental opposition scuttles the proposed land-based LNG plant, alternatives must be found. One is floating LNG. But that's opposed by the Western Australian government.
A third option is a gas pipeline from Broome to Darwin. There's much to recommend this.
From there the pipeline could cross the Timor Sea. There, it could pass through the Sunrise Gas Field. Development of Sunrise is similarly stalled due to pipeline/LNG/floating LNG development controversy.
From Sunrise, a pipeline could cross East Timor to Indonesia en route to interconnections in Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, southern China, Japan and South Korea.
Development of James Price Point could shape the future course Australia and Asia takes in developing a regional natural gas delivery infrastructure.
That, in turn, will dramatically impact Asia's ability to reduce regional carbon emissions.
The stakes are high. Asia must think long-term.
A Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline network represents a much more far-sighted, flexible, cheaper infrastructure than single-generation, single-purpose LNG.
Gas pipelines can carry hydrogen, biofuels and waste carbon. LNG can’t.
This flexibility will be crucial. So will be the ability to leverage networks.
That's because a Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline can create the crucial routes that high-capacity High-Voltage Direct Current electricity power lines and fiber optics can later follow.
The end result will be a regional, open-access, common-carrier energy and data network. The Internet is the template.
‘Bits and pieces’ of a Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline are already taking shape. The challenge is to recgonise the pattern and reap the gains.
Australia’s Northwest Shelf has the Dampier-Bunbury pipeline. Australia's Bayu Undan pipeline extends halfway across the Timor Sea. Indonesia’s Palapa Ring fiber optic cable project will soon reach West Timor.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nation States has plans to exapnd cross-border energy links through the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline and Trans-ASEAN Electricity Grid projects.
Meanwhile, China is building dozens of large-scale, domestic long-distance power line projects.
China also is deepening cross-border electricity and natural gas pipeline interconnections with the Mekong States and central Asia.
Asia needs trillions of dollars of energy infrastructure as it emerges as the world's largest economic bloc.
Environmental opposition to Australia's proposed land-based James Price Point LNG plant could start of a regional shiift toward flexible, future-proof multilateral energy networks rather than expensive, high-cost, single-technology bespoke bilateral infrastructure.
To learn more, read Grenatec’s reports ‘Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline’ and ‘Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure,.’
Or view our 17-minute video ‘Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure.’
Or visit our website at www.grenatec.com.
http://grenatec.com/pan-asian-gas-pipeline-better-lng/
ReplyDeletePan-Asian Gas Pipeline Better than LNG
A Pan-Asian natural gas pipeline would be more efficient in meeting Asia’s future energy needs than Liquid Natural Gas.
In coming years, Asia is slated to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on Liquid Natural Gas infrastructure. The aim will be to ship compressed gas from Australia and Southeast Asia to China, Japan and South Korea.
This LNG infrastructure will be short-lived, greenhouse gas-intensive and technologically inflexible. An interconected regional gas pipeline network, by contrast, would last a century or more and carry different fuels over time.
Grenatec evaluates these economics in its latest report: “Asia’s Natural Gas Revolution:Is A Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline The Answer?”
.
In its report, Grenatec outlines an alternative paradigm of a longer-lived, more flexible regional natural gas infrastructure costing the same as the current generation of planned LNG projects in Australia.
The advantages compound when electricity and data are added to the networ since a regional gas pipeline would create the pathway for high-capacity power lines and fiber optic cables to be laid alongside.
That, in turn, would ceate a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure serving a market of two billion people representing a quarter of global GDP. It would provide Asia with a dynamic energy market where fuel-switching, innovation and price competition could flourish.
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Canning Basin Natural Gas and Australia’s Kimberley
The Canning Basin in Australia’s isolated Kimberley may be one of the largest unconventional natural gas finds outside the United States.
The Canning Basin represents a key test of Australia’s ability to build the long-term infrastructure needed to develop a future low-emission economy.
The Canning Basin’s already set to get a pipeline extension to the regional hub of Broome. The ramifications are immense..
In the Canning Basin, Australian junior oil and gas explorer Buru Energy has found highly prospective oil and gas fields. Buru’s now moving ahead to develop these fields.
Buru needs a route to market, but Western Australian (WA) law presents a complicating factor.
Western Australia law mandates that 15% of any new gas developed in the state must be consumed within the state.
This is a populist measure aimed at keeping Western Australia gas prices artificially low through distorting markets. The goal is to attract industry — reflecting misguided views that energy prices alone (leaving out labor costs, distance from markets, etc.etc.) determine investment.
To meet this ‘set-aside’ requirement, Buru has agreed to build a $500 million, 600-kilometer pipeline to pump Canning Basinto Port Hedland. (see “Buru on a roll with pipeline deal,” The Australian, Nov. 8, 2012). The gas will then be delivered to state users via WA’s existing pipeline delivery network.
And this is where it gets interesting:
Woodside Petroleum wants to build a highly-controversial Liquid Natural Gas plant just north of Broome and Japan’s Inpex wants to develop the Ichthys Field nearby.
These are also potentially large sources of new supply. Like Buru, Woodside and Inpex want to sell the bulk of their Canning and Browse gas to China, Japan and South Korea.
What emerges is an ideal opportunity to take Buru’s pipeline project between the Canning Basin and Port Hedland, and use that as the first bit of a larger pipeline infrastructure stretching from Port Hedland to Darwin.
All of this could create the critical mass for a pipeline system that could subsequently stretch across the Timor Sea, Indonesia, the South China Sea and/or Mekong States enroute to Northeast Asia.
The result will be a much more flexible, future-proof pipeline infrastructure.
.
It’s not often populist lawmakers interfering with the laws of economics createa positive sum outcome. But in WA, that could be the case.
http://grenatec.com/research/
ReplyDeleteGrenatec Research
A Pan Asian Energy Infrastructure
Grenatec’s 190-page “Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure” study analyzes Asia’s low-emission energy resources and how they can be harnessed through a ubiquitous regional energy and information network.
Grenatec argues a ‘bundled’ infrastructure of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power lines, natural gas pipelines and fiber optic cables could feasibly stretch from China to Australia by 2050.
The report describes how the system can emerge organically through progressive interconnection of energy and data transmission infrastructure already being built in Asia.
Download‘Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure’ (29 megabytes).
Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline
Grenatec’s 56-page study “Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline’ study analyzes how natural gas pipelines could be a more efficient, lower-cost means of transporting gas around Asia during the transition period from fossil fuels to renewables.
Download ‘Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline’ (8 megabytes).
South China Sea
Grenatec’s 40-page South China Sea report concludes that a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure represents a potentially highly-effective means of reducing geopolitical tension in the South China Sea.
Download ‘South China Sea’ (5 megabytes).
Problems downloading? Please contact us at info@grenatec.com.
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http://grenatec.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/grenatec_pagp.pdf
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Buru on a roll with pipeline deal
ReplyDeleteAndrew Burrell |
The Australian |
November 08, 2012 12:00AM
BURU Energy's attempt to develop Australia's most promising onshore oil and gas region has received a major boost after it struck a deal with the West Australian government to build a $500 million pipeline from the Kimberley to connect to the domestic gas network in the Pilbara.
The agreement is significant because it stipulates that Buru and its joint venture partner, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, will deliver gas into WA's domestic network before any can be exported.
It is the first time WA's controversial domestic gas reservation policy, which ensures 15 per cent of gas from new projects is quarantined for domestic use, has been applied to an onshore project.
Buru already has an agreement with energy-hungry aluminium giant Alcoa to supply it with 500,000 terajoules of gas from its discoveries in the Canning Basin in the Kimberley. Alcoa has made a $40m pre-payment for gas to be delivered under the deal.
Buru executive director Eric Streitberg said the company always intended to supply the domestic market, with Alcoa as a foundation customer, before considering exports.
He said building the 600km pipeline to Port Hedland was the "easiest part" of the project, which still needed to prove up sufficient reserves in the Canning Basin.
Buru was in talks with an established player to build the pipeline.
Mr Streitberg said the agreement with the WA government would allow Buru the time and flexibility to develop the project, which would be underpinned by the domestic gas component.
Buru has been the best performer on the ASX this year after a series of positive drill results, including the huge Ungani oil discovery in the Canning Basin late last year.
The Canning Basin has been identified by the US Energy Information Agency as the most prospective region for so-called unconventional gas outside the US.
Buru shares rose almost 5 per cent to $2.81 yesterday, up from around $1 a year ago.
WA Premier Colin Barnett said the government would legislate to develop a gas pipeline to the Pilbara and ensure WA consumers had first use of any gas discovered. The 25-year state agreement, which includes a possible extension for another 25 years, will provide additional security of tenure for 1.7 million hectares covered by five exploration permits held by Buru and Mitsubishi.
Under the deal, Buru will be required to build a domestic gas project if viable gas resources are discovered by mid-2016. The agreement also provides a framework for the development of a project to deliver gas to an LNG export facility in the Pilbara.
Mr Barnett said the agreement would help secure WA's energy supplies and ensured that gas discoveries would be rapidly brought into production.
"Future development of energy-intensive magnetite production in the Pilbara and the mid-west and other value-adding and advanced manufacturing opportunities in the state will benefit considerably from an expansion of WA's domestic gas supply sources," he said.
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