Hot on the heals of Prelude, the Ichthys LNG project is heading for FID this year. The Australian Government has given environmental approval. On the marketing front, Inpex has said that Ichthys has a clear prospect of selling the entire 8.4 million tonne capacity of the project, with agreements with Chubu Power (0.49 mtpa), Toho […]

It’s good to see that the Productivity Commission has been asked to opine on fossil fuel taxes and subsidies. Many of the items claimed as fossil fuel subsidies by the Greens are rebates from fuel taxes but fuel taxes themselves are omitted from the calculations. According to the Henry Tax Review, Australia collects around $14 […]

Shell has announced the go-ahead for the Prelude LNG project, the world’s first floating LNG project, to be developed some 200 km offshore northern Australia in the Browse Basin. The project will tap around 3 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Prelude field, which was discovered in 2007, and begin production in around 2016. […]

EnergyQuest will be at the annual conference of APPEA, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, in Perth 10-13 April. With 2700 registrations so far it looks like being a great event.

The Australian Conservation Foundation recently claimed (1 March 2011) that Australia spends $11 billion more encouraging pollution than cleaning it up. However many of the items claimed as subsidies are rebates from fuel taxes but fuel taxes themselves are omitted from the calculations. According to the Henry Tax Review, Australia collects around $14 billion per […]

Last week I chaired a presentation by Professor Barry Brook on Carbon Pricing and the Future of Energy. Notwithstanding the problems in Japan, Professor Brook presented a very well-argued case for nuclear as necessary for cutting greenhouse emissions. His presentation is well worth viewing and is available at: http://www.adelaiderotary.com.au/images/pdfs/bwb_Compatibility%20Model_R.pdf

In addition to the terrible human toll and physical destruction resulting from the Miyagiken-Oki earthquake in Japan, the country also has to cope with damage to energy infrastructure, such as distribution networks. One immediate impact is power shortages from the shut-down of the TEPCO Fukashima Daiichi nuclear power plant.This is a big plant, with 4696 […]

David Upton has written a great history of Olympic Dam, how Western Mining defied the odds to discover and develop the world’s biggest mineral deposit. Proof that great resource discoveries (oil, gas as well as minerals) are made in the minds of men and women.  http://www.theolympicdamstory.com/

I chaired an interesting presentation by Professor Paul Stevens of Chatham House yesterday on the outlook for shale gas in Europe. Professor Stevens is currently visiting UCL Adelaide. The presentation is available at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/australia/News/shale_gas

According to the Treasury, one of the drivers of the Resource Super Profits Tax is a need to increase the tax burden on “immobile” tax bases like resources and land and reduce it on mobile capital.  This fundamentally assumes that resources are immobile.  Existing resource projects are certainly immobile and increasing their tax burden has […]