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Apache to Exit Australian Energy With $2.1 Billion Sale

Apache Corp. will exit Australia’s energy sector, selling its assets there to a group of private equity funds managed by Macquarie Capital Group Ltd. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. for $2.1 billion in cash. The assets produced the equivalent of about 49,000 barrels of oil a day in March. The company is keeping a 49 percent stake in fertilizer producer Yara Pilbara Holdings Pty. “Following the sale of our Australian assets, approximately 70% of Apache’s production will come from North America onshore,” John J. Christmann, chief executive officer of Apache, said in a statement Wednesday. Link to Statement:Link

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Buying BG Gives Shell Solution to Stranded Australian Gas Assets

Royal Dutch Shell Plc is seeking an outlet for its natural gas reserves in Australia’s Queensland state. Its $70 billion purchase of BG Group Plc provides a solution. Shell and its partner PetroChina Co. have been looking at alternatives for their Arrow gas project after shelving plans to build an export terminal this year due to cost blowouts and slumping energy prices. Arrow is in the same state as plants run by Santos Ltd. and ConocoPhillips — as well as BG’s $20 billion Queensland Curtis LNG development. “The Arrow assets are stranded at the moment, so it’s highly probable that if Shell’s purchase of BG went through, that gas would be monetized through QCLNG,” Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong, said Wednesday before the agreement was announced. “That’s definitely a source of value for this deal.” The combined company will have double the market […]

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Chevron’s Exit Signals Delays in Unlocking Australia’s Shale

(Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp.’s decision to pull out of a natural gas project in Australia after a plunge in oil prices is a signal it’s going to take even longer for the nation to realize its shale ambitions. Tapping Australia’s shale oil and gas was already challenging due to high drilling costs and the remote locations of its fields, with significant production forecast to be at least several years away. An almost 50 percent drop in the price of crude over the past year makes it harder. “The pace will be considerably slower than anyone would have forecast 18 months to two years ago,” Geoffrey Cann, Australian director of oil and gas for Deloitte LLP in Brisbane, said in a phone interview. The languishing oil prices are stalling efforts to replicate the U.S. shale boom globally. Big producers ConocoPhillips, Hess Corp. and Statoil ASA have already beaten Chevron out […]

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Chevron to divest 50% stake in Caltex Australia

Chevron’s executive vice-president of Downstream and Chemicals Michael Wirth said in a statement that the divestment is aligned with its previously announced asset sales commitment and is part of its desire to regularly review its portfolio and generate cash to support long term priorities. "Chevron will continue to ensure a reliable, high-quality supply of product is available to Caltex to supply to its retail and reseller franchise network. Chevron is also committed to seeking long-term relationship opportunities with Caltex." Caltex has a 109,000 b/d refinery at Lytton in Brisbane, which operated at 88.6% utilization last year. The company shut its 135,000 b/d refinery at Kurnell in Sydney in October 2014. The facility is currently being converted into an import terminal. The fall in crude prices resulted in a dramatic drop in Caltex’s profit to just A$20 million ($15.7 million) last year, down from A$530 million in 2013. Meanwhile, Chevron […]

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Woodside to Pay $2.75 Billion for Apache Project Stakes

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) agreed to pay Apache Corp. (APA) $2.75 billion for stakes in two liquefied natural gas projects, while delaying approval for its own $35 billion-development off the nation’s northwest coast. The Apache transaction will give Woodside interests in the Wheatstone LNG and Balnaves oil projects in Australia as well as Canada ’s Kitimat LNG development. The projects are among dozens under construction or consideration worldwide as companies seek to feed Asian markets hungry for gas. Woodside has been seeking acquisitions after its $2.7 billion plan to buy back shares from Royal Dutch Shell Plc was blocked by investors. Apache, facing pressure from activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC to cut spending and focus on the U.S., said in July it was seeking to exit the proposed Canadian project and the facility under construction in Australia. The Apache deal “adds production growth in a period when […]

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Apache dumps Australian, Canadian LNG assets

U.S. energy company sells stakes in two LNG projects to Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum for more than $2 billion. UPI/Stephen Shaver "I am proud of Apache’s legacy in advancing the Wheatstone and Kitimat liquefied natural gas projects, and I am confident that Woodside’s participation will have a positive impact in seeing these world-class LNG facilities through to first production," G. Steven Farris, the top executive at Apache, said in a statement. Apache sold its interests, which include oil and natural gas reserves, to Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum. Apache under the terms of the deal is also reimbursed around $1 billion for net expenses on the two LNG projects. The first phase of the Wheatstone project envisions deliveries of up to 8.9 million tons of LNG per year from third-party gas projects in Australia. The proposed Kitimat project in British Columbia has a planned capacity of 5 million […]

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Floating LNG Plants May Be Solution for Australia

2:39 am ET Asia Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas plant in the shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industry in Geoje, South Korea. It was designed to take in the equivalent of 110,000 barrels of oil per day in natural gas and cool it into LNG for transport and sale in Asia. Associated Press Australia is expected to become the world’s largest supplier of liquefied natural gas by the end of the decade, but significant cost overruns and delays in building new LNG projects are threatening its future competitiveness as companies move forward with major projects in the U.S. and Canada. The solution for Australia may be floating LNG plants, because they can be built overseas, where the costs of labor and materials are generally lower, Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said. “If any new LNG project comes to pass [from scratch], it’d be FLNG,” Mr. Macfarlane said […]

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China Trade Pact Set to Deliver Relief for Australian Coal Mines

Print Back to story A free trade agreement with China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, is set to bring some relief to struggling producers in Australia . China is expected to exempt the miners from import tariffs as part of the new trade accord, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to address Australia’s parliament in Canberra today when the agreement is scheduled to be announced. The removal of the tariffs, designed to protect struggling Chinese mines, will help bolster margins of producers in Australia, the biggest coal exporting nation. A global glut and slowing demand growth have depressed prices, forcing companies from BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) to Glencore Plc to cut costs. “For the coal space, there’s a good chance it will mean that the tariffs recently announced by the Chinese won’t apply to Australian exports of thermal coal,” Paul Bloxham, chief Australia economist […]

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Australia, China deepen ties with landmark free trade deal

CANBERRA (Reuters) – China and Australia on Monday sealed a landmark free trade agreement more than a decade in the making, significantly expanding ties between the world’s second largest economy and one of Washington’s closest allies in Asia. The deal, which Australia called the best ever between Beijing and a Western country, will open up Chinese markets to Australian farm exporters and the services sector while easing curbs on Chinese investment in resource-rich Australia. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a memorandum of understanding clinching the agreement during a ceremony in parliament in Canberra. "This has been a 10-year journey, but we have finally made it," Abbott said. Xi praised the deal in an address to parliament, pledging to deepen cooperation with Australia while reaffirming China’s willingness to resolve territorial disputes with its neighbors through diplomatic means. "As long as we have our long-term […]

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Coal versus climate in Australia

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the science on climate change as ‘crap’ [Getty Images] Australia continues to frustrate efforts by fellow G20 members to include climate change on the agenda at the upcoming leaders’ summit in the eastern city of Brisbane this weekend. As the host nation sets the G20 meeting’s agenda , Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – an avowed sceptic of human-caused climate change – has resisted calls for global warming to be discussed when world leaders gather on November 15 and 16. Despite a recent official draft summary of proceedings appearing to make token references to climate change, the level of importance afforded to the issue remains unclear. Climate change was on the agenda at the previous eight G20 summits. Since forming the government in September 2013, Abbott has repealed Australia’s nascent emissions trading scheme and slashed funding to agencies and programmes promoting renewable energy and […]

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Australia authorizes special forces troops to go to Iraq

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian special forces troops will be deployed in Iraq to assist in the fight against Islamic State militants, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday, and its aircraft will also join U.S.-led coalition strikes. Abbott said in a nationally televised news conference the Australian troops would be engaged in an "advise and assist" capacity to support the Iraqi army in their battle against the militant Islamist group. The United States has been bombing Islamic State and other groups in Syria for almost two weeks with the help of Arab allies, and hitting targets in neighboring Iraq since August. European countries have joined the campaign in Iraq but not in Syria. Last month, Abbott sent aircraft and 600 personnel to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for joining the coalition. He has since said it was likely Australian aircraft would join the strikes to combat Islamic State, […]

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AWE, Origin in Huge Western Australia Gas Find

AWE and Origin’s Waitsia gas discovery is about 217 miles north of Perth, Western Australia. This picture shows the Pearce Air Base in Bullsbrook, some 21 miles north of Perth. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images PERTH, Australia—Australian energy company AWE Ltd. said Thursday it may have made the largest onshore natural-gas discovery in Western Australia for 50 years, in partnership with Origin Energy Ltd. The Waitsia field could contain more than one trillion cubic feet of natural gas, AWE said, following an initial analysis of the recently drilled Senecio-3 well. The assessment helped to send shares in Melbourne-based AWE up 14%. Australia has long been a hot spot for oil and gas exploration, and international companies including Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are investing billions to build export facilities following success with the drillbit in previous years. However, industry groups say interest has been flagging recently, especially offshore where […]

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Apache Makes Big Oil Find Off Western Australia

PERTH, Australia—In what would be one of Australia’s largest oil discoveries in decades, U.S. energy company Apache Corp. said an exploration well offshore Western Australia state had found as much as 300 million barrels of crude. The drilling result from the Phoenix South-1 well in the offshore Canning Basin could reopen a frontier for oil exploration that some international energy companies abandoned decades earlier after wells turned up dry. "The oil and reservoir quality we have seen point to a commercial discovery," said Thomas E. Voytovich, a senior executive at Apache’s international arm. "If these results are borne out by further appraisal drilling, Phoenix South may represent a new oil province for Australia." Australia is in need of new sources of oil to replace fast diminishing reserves from existing fields. According to BP PLC, Australia’s oil production last year fell by 17% to 416,000 barrels a day—its lowest level […]

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Australian Repeal Deals Blow to Global Carbon-Emission Plans

GDF Suez Australian Energy’s Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Morwell, Australia. Bloomberg News Australia’s repeal of a pioneering tax on carbon emissions has dealt a sharp blow to struggling international efforts to coordinate on global warming and comes ahead of key climate-change talks next year. On July 17, Australia’s parliament pulled the plug on the 2012 tax, which charged 348 businesses such as steelmakers and power companies A$25.40 (US$24) per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. The levy was slated to evolve next year into an emissions-trading system that would link to the European Union’s. Although environmentalists world-wide applauded the program, Australian consumers and corporations bitterly protested the added costs, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying it sucked A$9 billion off economic growth each year. Scrapping the program further isolates the EU and other countries that have plowed ahead with strict measures to limit carbon emissions and that have been […]

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Environmentalists Denounce Repeal of Australia’s Carbon Tax

SYDNEY, Australia — Opposition politicians and environmentalists in Australia reacted with dismay Thursday to the country’s repeal of laws requiring large companies to pay for carbon emissions , saying that it made Australia the first country to reverse progress on fighting climate change. The Senate voted 39 to 32 on Thursday to repeal the so-called carbon tax after Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government secured the support of a number of independent senators. The House of Representatives had voted earlier in the week to repeal the unpopular measure, which has been a highly contentious issue in Australian politics for seven years. The tax was devised to penalize hundreds of Australia’s biggest producers of carbon emissions, setting a price of 23 Australian dollars, or $21.50, per metric ton of carbon dioxide when it was put into effect in 2012 under then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard of the Labor Party, which is […]

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Australia Repeals Carbon Tax

CANBERRA, Australia—Australia repealed laws forcing companies to pay for carbon emissions, making it the world’s first developed nation to undo legislation aimed at dealing with perceived man-made climate change. Australia’s Senate on Thursday voted to repeal the so-called carbon tax that conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to get rid of ahead of elections last year. The move follows almost a decade of heated political debate and wrangling between senators over the issue.

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Australia Axing Pollution Levy Marks First U-Turn on Climate

Australia ’s decision to repeal its levy limiting fossil-fuel pollution makes it the first nation to turn back from a market approach to fighting global warming. Prime Minister Tony Abbott ’s government won final approval from Parliament yesterday to scrap a levy about 300 companies paid for their carbon dioxide emissions. The move leaves Australia, the largest polluter per capita among industrial nations, without a system for reducing greenhouse gases as it prepares to host a meeting of the Group of 20 nations. “Australia is bereft of a credible climate policy just as the international community focuses on deeper reduction targets,” said John Connor, chief executive officer of The Climate Institute, a Sydney-based environmental group. He called the move an “historic act of irresponsibility and recklessness.” The about-face sets up Abbott for a clash with Europe and the U.S., which asked for climate policy to be on the G-20 […]

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LNG project in Australia scrubbed

Australian energy company Santos said Thursday it was mulling its options after finding the Bonaparte LNG project doesn’t meet its commercial interests. Santos said it would consider other development options for the Petrel, Tern and Frigate natural gas fields, including the possibility of building a pipeline from the fields in the Timor Sea. Santos has a 40 percent interest in the developments alongside French company GDF Suez . "While the partners firmly believe the fields have material value, having been fully appraised, their future development using floating [liquefied natural gas] technology … does not currently meet the companies’ commercial requirements," the company said in a joint statement with its French partner. Dubbed the Bonaparte LNG project, the partners said they’re no longer moving ahead with front-end engineering and design. Australia is a leading exporter of LNG and energy companies operating there have secured long-term supply contracts with Asian countries […]

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Antarctica ‘stealing’ Australia’s rain: study

Antarctica is "stealing" Australia ‘s rainfall, explaining why the former is not warming as much as other continents and why southern Australia is recording more droughts, the Australian National University (ANU) reported on Monday. Researchers in Australia have found rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are strengthening the stormy Southern Ocean winds. These would normally deliver rain to southern Australia but are instead pushing further south towards Antarctica. "With greenhouse warming, Antarctica is actually stealing more of Australia’s rainfall," said Dr Nerilie Abram, lead researcher from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences. "As the westerly winds are getting tighter they’re actually trapping more of the cold air over Antarctica," she said. "As greenhouse gases continue to rise we’ll get fewer storms chased up into Australia." Until this study, published in Nature Climate Change, Antarctic climate observations were available only from the […]

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Antarctica 'stealing' Australia's rain: study

Antarctica is "stealing" Australia ‘s rainfall, explaining why the former is not warming as much as other continents and why southern Australia is recording more droughts, the Australian National University (ANU) reported on Monday. Researchers in Australia have found rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are strengthening the stormy Southern Ocean winds. These would normally deliver rain to southern Australia but are instead pushing further south towards Antarctica. "With greenhouse warming, Antarctica is actually stealing more of Australia’s rainfall," said Dr Nerilie Abram, lead researcher from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences. "As the westerly winds are getting tighter they’re actually trapping more of the cold air over Antarctica," she said. "As greenhouse gases continue to rise we’ll get fewer storms chased up into Australia." Until this study, published in Nature Climate Change, Antarctic climate observations were available only from the […]

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Australia could emerge as shale powerhouse

The Australian energy sector is in the midst of a sea change, with investors retooling their strategies to focus on unconventional gas, industry officials said. Andrew Latham, vice president of exploration for energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie , said Australian exploration is dominated by frontier areas and long-term natural gas projects, two areas where he said the industry is losing interest. "Australia’s established unconventional gas industry is likely to rank highly, when benchmarked against other unconventional plays outside North America," he said Monday at an energy summit in Perth. Australia is a premier exporter of liquefied natural gas from conventional reserves. Several Asian countries have secured long-term natural gas supply contracts from companies operating in Australia. Rob Cole, chairman of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, said development costs were inhibiting growth within the country’s energy sector. Latham, meanwhile, said parts of the country may hold some of […]

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Coal Sliding as Australian Flood Boost Lost in Drought

The drought across most of Australia ’s Queensland state means coal producers are exporting record volumes into an oversupplied market, depriving them of the usual price gains caused by weather disruptions. Shipments from Queensland, the biggest exporter of coal used in steelmaking, will rise 14 percent to 205 million metric tons in the 12 months ending June 30, the government says. The heavy rains that crimped output and boosted prices in three of the past four years by flooding pits such as Cockatoo Coal Ltd.’s Baralaba mine haven’t come this year. “Waters that we collected during that flood we’re now utilizing” to reduce dust and in the construction of a wall to protect against a 1-in-a-1,000 years flood, said Andrew Lawson, Cockatoo’s managing director. “Water is a risk and an opportunity,” said Lawson, who joined the company a year after flooding in 2010 halted output. Deluges in Queensland in […]

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Australia's LNG exports face competition from U.S.

The United States is emerging as a major competitor to Australia’s gas export market, says a former U.S. Department of Energy official. Speaking at the Australian Domestic Gas conference Wednesday in Sydney, Randa Fahmy Hudome, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. associate deputy secretary of energy, said the United States viewed Asia as its biggest market and was increasing liquefied natural gas export approvals to fill future demand from that region, The Australian newspaper reports. Hudome now heads up a Washington, D.C.-based government relations and strategic consulting firm she launched in 2003. "In the U.S. we see the demand in Asia as the biggest bite of the apple for us. We intend to compete in that market," she said. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy conditionally authorized approved Cameron LNG, LLC to export domestically produced […]

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Australia’s LNG exports face competition from U.S.

The United States is emerging as a major competitor to Australia’s gas export market, says a former U.S. Department of Energy official. Speaking at the Australian Domestic Gas conference Wednesday in Sydney, Randa Fahmy Hudome, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. associate deputy secretary of energy, said the United States viewed Asia as its biggest market and was increasing liquefied natural gas export approvals to fill future demand from that region, The Australian newspaper reports. Hudome now heads up a Washington, D.C.-based government relations and strategic consulting firm she launched in 2003. "In the U.S. we see the demand in Asia as the biggest bite of the apple for us. We intend to compete in that market," she said. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy conditionally authorized approved Cameron LNG, LLC to export domestically produced […]

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Shell Sells Australian Refinery, Gas Stations for $2.6 Billion

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has agreed to sell its Australian refinery and gas stations to energy trader Vitol Holding BV for 2.9 billion Australian dollars (US$2.6 billion), as the company offloads assets around the globe to protect falling profits. The sale includes Shell’s Geelong refinery in Victoria state and 870 gas stations and comes just a month after it agreed to sell its minority stake in an Australian natural-gas project for US$1.14 billion. "Australia remains important to Shell, but we are making tough portfolio choices to improve the company’s overall competitiveness," Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement Friday. The news follows the disclosure Thursday that Shell has sold its downstream business in Italy to Kuwait Petroleum International. Mr. van Beurden, who took the reins at Shell on Jan. 1, is mapping out a more conservative path for the Anglo-Dutch company after a decade of […]

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Australian company Icon finds 'significant gas' in Queensland shale

Australian company Icon Energy Ltd. said Friday it encountered significant volumes of natural gas in a shale basin in the state of Queensland. Icon said it completed drilling its Redland-1 well in the region — an operation meant to evaluate the reserve potential in the Toolachee and Daralingie shale formations — and found "significant gas." The region, it said, could be a "world class" shale reserve area. The well is the sixth for the company in the region. It said additional hydraulic fracturing is planned for the area during the third quarter of 2014. Icon said it notified Australian authorities of the recent discovery. Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization said the country has "substantial prospective shale reserves" and that commercialization will require major investments. Porn star Jenna Jameson uses online army and her body to track down former assistant 2-year-old in […]

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Australian company Icon finds ‘significant gas’ in Queensland shale

Australian company Icon Energy Ltd. said Friday it encountered significant volumes of natural gas in a shale basin in the state of Queensland. Icon said it completed drilling its Redland-1 well in the region — an operation meant to evaluate the reserve potential in the Toolachee and Daralingie shale formations — and found "significant gas." The region, it said, could be a "world class" shale reserve area. The well is the sixth for the company in the region. It said additional hydraulic fracturing is planned for the area during the third quarter of 2014. Icon said it notified Australian authorities of the recent discovery. Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization said the country has "substantial prospective shale reserves" and that commercialization will require major investments. Porn star Jenna Jameson uses online army and her body to track down former assistant 2-year-old in […]

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Australia on course for a shale boom?

Australia is slated to be the next big energy market for shale, experts say. Boston consultancy Lux Research in a recent report predicted that Australia will experience large-scale hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, sooner than in China, even though China’s shale resources are estimated to be twice that of the United States. "Existing infrastructure, low population density in resource-rich regions and a welcoming government position Australia at the forefront of shale development," Lux analyst Daniel Choi was quoted as saying by The Australian newspaper. China by contrast, is fraught with technical challenges caused by depth and geology, Choi says, in addition to the country’s poor infrastructure and local turf wars. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says Australia has an estimated 437 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas reserves, ranking the country the sixth highest in the world. The reserves are dispersed throughout the […]

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Australia's drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

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Australia’s drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

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Australia Divided on Fracking

Debate over hydraulic fracturing is growing in Australia, where environmentalists are concerned about new efforts to tap the country’s substantial reserves of oil and natural gas . So far, experts say, hydraulic fracturing has made few inroads in Australia. But the practice, also known as fracking, is expected to grow as Australia seeks more natural gas for export. Fracking involves extracting oil or gas from shale rock with a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals. Australia is poised at the “forefront of shale development,” because of its infrastructure, low population density and other factors, according to a report last week from the firm Lux Research. That is not what the country’s environmentalists want to hear. They have watched the rise of fracking in the United States, where the practice has proliferated in recent years, and fear the possibility of water contamination or overuse, as well as earthquakes from […]

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Shell to further scale down Australian operations?

Shell’s Australian investments are in the spotlight after the company offloaded its holdings in a major gas project in Western Australia. Shell announced Monday it is selling an 8 percent stake in the Wheatstone-Iago joint venture gas fields, and also a 6.4 percent holding in the Wheatstone gas project to Kuwait’s Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. for $1.3 billion. "Shell will remain a major player in Australia’s energy industry. However, we are refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell’s capital and technology," said Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, in a statement announcing the Wheatstone sale. "We are making hard choices in our worldwide portfolio to improve Shell’s capital efficiency." The move follows Shell’s announcement of earnings Friday for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 of $2.9 billion, almost $1 billion less than market expectations. Other Shell assets […]

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Shell Sells Australian Assets for $1.14 Billion

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Monday it is selling its stake in an Australian natural-gas project, the oil company’s first disposal since it issued a rare profit warning last week . Shell said it has agreed to sell its 8% equity interest in the Wheatstone-Iago gas field, which is operated by U.S.-based Chevron Corp. , and 6.4% interest in the Wheatstone liquefied-natural-gas project in Western Australia for $1.14 billion in cash to state-owned Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. "Shell will remain a major player in Australia’s energy industry," Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said. "However, we are refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell’s capital and technology." Shell said Friday it expects fourth-quarter earnings, which it will announce next week, to be $2.2 billion, down about 70% from $7.3 billion a year earlier. It projected full-year earnings of $16.8 billion, down […]

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Hundreds flee homes as heatwave fans Australia bushfires

Extreme heat and high winds fanned dozens of bushfires across Australia on Friday, prompting hundreds to flee their homes in some of the worst conditions seen since Black Saturday in 2009. One person died in the Grampians bushland in the southeastern state of Victoria, about 300 km (186 miles) west of Melbourne, where bushfires are burning out of control amid temperatures which have hit above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees F), destroying or damaging houses. Victoria was the hardest hit, with 70 bushfires burning out of control. Dozens of blazes are burning in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales. Authorities have issued seven emergency warnings to severely affected areas, prompting hundreds of residents to flee their homes. Victoria Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said conditions were "up there" as the worst since the Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people in 2009. Lapsley said […]

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Australia heat wave prompts fire alerts

Australians headed to the beach as temperatures soared South-east Australia has been hit with extreme hot weather, with temperatures of over 40C in some areas, and several bushfire warnings in place. In Victoria state, lightning strikes sparked more than 250 fires on Tuesday night, fire authorities said. A fire ban has been issued across the state. In Melbourne, a tennis player and a ball boy at the Australian Open collapsed in the heat. Temperatures in the city remained above 30C for much of Tuesday night. Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Euan Ferguson said in a statement: "The extreme temperatures [in Victoria] over the coming three days will test fire services and the community… it’s critical we minimise the risk of any fires before Friday." Road tar melting Meanwhile Adelaide, the capital of […]

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No deep freeze: Australia swelters in heat wave

Bats are dropping from trees, kangaroos are collapsing in the Outback and gardens are turning brown. While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever. Weather forecasters in Australia said some parts of the sparsely populated Pilbara region along the rugged northwest coast on Thursday were approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The record high of 50.7 degrees Celsius (123.3 F) was set in 1960 in Oodnadatta, South Australia state. Outback resident Gian Tate, 60, spends much of the day soaking in a small wading pool at her home near Emu Creek in the Pilbara region, a remote area off the electric grid. The thermometer outside her home registered 50 degrees Celsius (122 F) on Wednesday, she said. Tate and her husband […]

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Australia to reduce renewable energy target?

Australia’s renewable energy target appears to be on the table following Prime Minister Tony Abbott ‘s decision to review the country’s energy policy. Abbott announced Wednesday he will head an energy policy task force that will be "looking at new options to reduce the costs of energy." The review is expected to be completed in June. Australia’s Renewable Energy Target scheme, enacted in 2009, requires energy retailers and large customers to source a proportion of their energy from renewable sources. It calls for 20 percent of the country’s power generation to come from renewable sources by 2020. Abbott said "we support sensible use of renewable energy," but said circumstances had changed. "We have to accept that in the changed circumstances of today, the renewable energy target is causing pretty significant price pressure in the system and we ought to be an affordable energy […]

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Australian coal projects at risk of being ‘stranded’

Australian coal projects are in danger of becoming "stranded," a new report by the University of Oxford warns. The report says Australia has proposals for 89 coal mines which could more than double annual output from about 430 million tons in 2011 to about 980 million tons by 2020. China is seen as a key export market for those projects. But the report, commissioned by HSBC’s Climate Change Center of Excellence, points to the changing nature of China’s outlook for coal and the impacts on resource-rich Australia, currently the world’s largest exporter of coal to China. "China’s demand for coal is changing as a result of environment-related factors, including environmental regulation, developments in cleaner technologies, air pollution, improving energy efficiency, developments in gas markets and political activism," Ben Caldecott, co-author of the report was quoted as saying by Business Green. "This could lead […]

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Australian coal projects at risk of being 'stranded'

Australian coal projects are in danger of becoming "stranded," a new report by the University of Oxford warns. The report says Australia has proposals for 89 coal mines which could more than double annual output from about 430 million tons in 2011 to about 980 million tons by 2020. China is seen as a key export market for those projects. But the report, commissioned by HSBC’s Climate Change Center of Excellence, points to the changing nature of China’s outlook for coal and the impacts on resource-rich Australia, currently the world’s largest exporter of coal to China. "China’s demand for coal is changing as a result of environment-related factors, including environmental regulation, developments in cleaner technologies, air pollution, improving energy efficiency, developments in gas markets and political activism," Ben Caldecott, co-author of the report was quoted as saying by Business Green. "This could lead […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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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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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