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Another cost blowout for Chevron's Gorgon LNG in Australia

Oil and gas giant Chevron Corporation has revealed the cost of its massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas project on Western Australia’s Barrow Island has increased to $54 billion. The cost blowout comes a year after the cost estimate for Gorgon, the world’s largest LNG development, was raised from $37 billion to $52 billion. Chevron said the project, under construction for four years, is nearly 75 percent complete. The company said Gorgon’s plant start-up and first gas is planned for mid-2015, a year later than initially planned. In a release Wednesday announcing the company’s 2014 overall capital and exploration budget, Chevron Vice Chairman George Kirkland said lessons learned from Gorgon’s complex construction were being applied to the $29 billion Wheatstone LNG project, also in Western Australia, which he said remains on schedule and on budget and is nearly 25 percent complete. The economics of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Peak oil action plan cuts risk in Meander Valley

The Meander Valley Council is implementing the first Local Government Peak Oil Action Plan in Tasmania. The Council has ratified its oil risk action plan, and the report is being picked up as a template by other local government councils in the state. Meander Valley mayor, Craig Perkins says the blueprint identifies opportunities for the Council, local businesses and communities to take action to reduce exposure to rising fuel costs. Craig Perkins says the valley’s dispersed rural communities and businesses and some Council services are very vulnerable to changes in the price and availability of fuel. “There are different views in the community about where oil vulnerability goes, or doesn’t go. “But one thing we do know is that if the price of oil continues to rise that poses risks for us as a council and risks for the community […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Shell floats hull for world’s largest FLNG facility

The 488-m hull of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) plant was floated from the dry dock at the Samsung Heavy Industries yard in Geoje, South Korea, where Prelude is being built. The company laid the keel for the vessel in May. Shell’s first deployment of FNLG technology, Prelude FLNG will be the largest floating facility in the world once it’s complete and is expected to produce 3.6 million tonnes/year of LNG. The facility will operate for 25 years in a remote basin 475 km northeast of Broome, Western Australia, developing the Prelude and nearby Concerto gas fields in permit WA-371-P with total reserves of 3 tcf of gas and about 120 million bbl of condensate. Prelude FLNG is designed to withstand a category 5 cyclone. Shell said the facility will enable the development of gas resources ranging from clusters of smaller more remote fields to potentially […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia at risk of severe consequences of climate change

Australia is at risk of severe consequences as a result of climate change, a new book warns. “Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World,” by a group of scientists and economists, looks at the economic implications of global warming of 4 degrees Celsius – or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit — by or before 2100. The book’s editor, Peter Christoff, associate professor of environmental policy at the University of Melbourne, says that even if the world’s major economies were to enact current carbon emissions reduction pledges aimed at limiting warming to below 2C, the world is still on track to experience 4C of warming by 2100, The Guardian reports. “Australia is exceptionally vulnerable ecologically to climate change,” Christoff told the newspaper. Four degrees of warming, he said, would mean “a comprehensive transformation for life in Australia, from its wealth to its access to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australian state extends moratorium on fracking

MELBOURNE, Nov. 21 (UPI) — The Australian state of Victoria has extended its moratorium on onshore coal seam gas production and ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, until at least July 2015 while it conducts a community consultation process. Victorian Premier Denis Napthine announced his decision Thursday, in tandem with the release of the Gas Market Taskforce report, which was submitted to the government three weeks ago. The premier said earlier this month that he would not be rushed into making a decision. “There is no hurry … the gas has been in the ground onshore for tens of thousands of years. It’ll be there for some time yet,” he said. The report was commissioned by Napthine’s predecessor, Ted Baillieu, in January. The taskforce, chaired by former Federal Minister Peter Reith, in its report recommended that Victoria encourage the development of onshore gas projects and that fracking be allowed. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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CNOOC ups ownership to 50% of CSG-LNG Queensland project

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) will move to a 50% interest in Train 1 of the Queensland Curtis Island coal seam gas-LNG project, operated by BG Group. BG sold a further 40% of the project to the Chinese company for $1.93 billion to add to its existing 10% interest. Under a separate agreement, BG is to supply CNOOC with another 5 million tonnes/year of LNG for 20 years beginning in 2015. This LNG will come from BG’s global portfolio of assets. The Queensland Curtis LNG deal includes CNOOC receiving a 20% interest in reserves and resources of some BG permits in the Walloon Fairway region of the Surat basin taking its share there to 25%. In addition CNOOC gets a 25% equity in other BG permits in the Bowen and Surat basins. CNOOC will have the option to participate in up to 25% in one of the possible […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia's mining sector is expected to suffer from China's economic downturn, says a new report.

SYDNEY, Nov. 5 (UPI) — Australia’s mining sector is expected to suffer from China’s economic downturn, says a new report. “With China’s economy on course for a rude slowdown over the coming years,” says the report, released Monday by London-based research consultants Business Monitor, “Australia’s mining sector is set to suffer the painful spillover effects of a sharp investment slowdown.” The report notes that Australia has been among the biggest beneficiaries from the China-led commodities boom over the past decade. The value of the Australia’s mining industry had increased more than six-fold from $24 billion in 2003 to $147 billion in 2012, boosted by a sharp rise in the value of Australia’s mineral exports, particularly iron ore and coal. While Business Monitor predicts the value of Australia’s mining sector to reach $181 billion by 2017, the average annual growth rate is expected to be 4.3 percent through 2017, compared […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia’s mining sector is expected to suffer from China’s economic downturn, says a new report.

SYDNEY, Nov. 5 (UPI) — Australia’s mining sector is expected to suffer from China’s economic downturn, says a new report. “With China’s economy on course for a rude slowdown over the coming years,” says the report, released Monday by London-based research consultants Business Monitor, “Australia’s mining sector is set to suffer the painful spillover effects of a sharp investment slowdown.” The report notes that Australia has been among the biggest beneficiaries from the China-led commodities boom over the past decade. The value of the Australia’s mining industry had increased more than six-fold from $24 billion in 2003 to $147 billion in 2012, boosted by a sharp rise in the value of Australia’s mineral exports, particularly iron ore and coal. While Business Monitor predicts the value of Australia’s mining sector to reach $181 billion by 2017, the average annual growth rate is expected to be 4.3 percent through 2017, compared […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australian Wildfires Damage Asciano’s Rail Network – Update

By Rhiannon Hoyle SYDNEY–Rail and port operator Asciano Ltd. (AIO.AU) said wildfires raging across eastern Australia had damaged its rail network there, disrupting its coal-haulage operations even as it forecast an improvement in full-year profits. A spokesman for the company said Friday that one of Asciano’s rail lines–which transports coal from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to the coast, largely for export to Asia–closed on Oct. 18 as fires broke out in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state. The line should be back up-and-running next week, he said. “The recent bush fires have caused extensive damage on the Western line in southern southeast Australia and will impact volumes hauled in October,” Asciano said in a stock exchange filing. Asciano hauls coal across New South Wales state, including from several big mines in the Hunter Valley, to export facilities like the Port of Newcastle, the world’s largest coal […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australian Wildfires Damage Asciano's Rail Network – Update

By Rhiannon Hoyle SYDNEY–Rail and port operator Asciano Ltd. (AIO.AU) said wildfires raging across eastern Australia had damaged its rail network there, disrupting its coal-haulage operations even as it forecast an improvement in full-year profits. A spokesman for the company said Friday that one of Asciano’s rail lines–which transports coal from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to the coast, largely for export to Asia–closed on Oct. 18 as fires broke out in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state. The line should be back up-and-running next week, he said. “The recent bush fires have caused extensive damage on the Western line in southern southeast Australia and will impact volumes hauled in October,” Asciano said in a stock exchange filing. Asciano hauls coal across New South Wales state, including from several big mines in the Hunter Valley, to export facilities like the Port of Newcastle, the world’s largest coal […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple