EnergyQuest has released a new, confidential study, Australian Coal Seam Gas 2013: All Aboard the LNG Train. Some of the key findings include: Upstream there is little activity outside the CSG LNG projects and certainly no discoveries of new “sweet spots”. If anything CSG exploration acreage appears to be shrinking. For the LNG projects, the biggest challenges […]

Last week Shell announced that its Corio refinery at Geelong is up for sale. he likelihood is that the refinery will close. If this happens Australia will be down to four refineries from eight in 2002, with one in Melbourne, two in Brisbane and one in Perth. Australia consumes twice as much oil as it […]

Speculation continues about the potential volume of US LNG exports to countries that do not currently have free trade agreements (FTA) with the US. However, as I understand it, countries with FTA agreements that are able to import from the US (such as Korea) are not restricted to consuming the LNG in the home country. […]

More from Platts on plunging US ethane prices: http://plattsenergyweektv.com/news/article/236857/293/010613-MS—Plunging-Price-of-Ethane  

The treaty between Australia and Timor Leste governing development of the Sunrise field for LNG lapses in seven weeks, on 23 February 2013. Sunrise straddles the border of the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) and an area of sole Australian jurisdiction. In the Timor Sea Treaty (2003) between Australia and Timor Leste, the resources of the […]

An interesting piece in Platts on a report from the Dallas Fed on the growth of US petrochemicals based on ethane from shale gas. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Petrochemicals/6969992 It is often assumed that methane is a feedstock for petrochemicals but the relevant feedstocks are ethane and naphtha (produced from condensate). Australia produces ethane from the Cooper Basin and […]

Each December the US Oil and Gas Journal publishes its estimates of global oil production for the current year and its estimate of proven oil and gas reserves for the start of the coming year. http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/vol-110/issue-12/special-report-worldwide-report/global-oil-production-up-in-2012-as.html The estimates are widely quoted. However they are released prior to the end-of-year announcements of reserves and production by the […]

Private Empire. ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll won the FT/Goldman Sachs prize for best business book of 2012 and deservedly so, the book is actually much better than the publicity. It focusses on the fairly recent history of ExxonMobil under Lee Raymond and Rex Tillerson. Each chapter covers a particular topic like the […]

Why Australia Prospered. The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth by Ian McLean is the first economic history of Australia in 40 years. It covers 200 years of Australian history and is very relevant to current debates such as the role of the resources sector versus manufacturing. Generallyit concludes that Australia’s natural resource abundance has been a […]

  Good quote from Alan Kohler 10 November taking about the western world generally: Conspiracy of Fear There is a conspiracy of fear formation between a media desperately seeking sales to save itself with, and politicians desperately seeking relevance. The financial establishment is happy to join in the conspiracy because market volatility produces profits. Nobody […]