Massive sale from Gorgon Gas Project

perthfisher

By Babs McHugh from

Wednesday, 19/08/2009

PetroChina has signed a $50 billion deal with ExxonMobil to buy 2.25 million tonnes of

liquefied natural gas a year from the Gorgon field, off the WA coast, over 20 years.

On many fronts, relations between China and Australia may be their lowest for years, but that

didn't stop the signing of the massive deal last night which is the biggest single investment

ever seen in Australia.

The deal virtually guarantees that the Gorgon project will go ahead and the company

managing the project, Chevron, is expected to make a final investment decision within weeks.

It comes on the back of a deal signed just last week by partners ExxonMobil and Petronet to

sell 1.5 million tonnes of LNG to India a year for the next 20 years, a deal worth around $20

billion.

The Gorgon Gas Project is to be developed on Barrow Island, and A class reserve, that has

been producing oil and gas for the last 50-plus years.

The project has come under fire from green and environmental groups which believe it should

be built onshore at Onslow and not on the island.

However, the WA Environmental Protection Authority and WA Environment Minister Donna

Farragher have given it the go ahead and Federal Environment Minister Peter Garret is

expected to do the same within weeks.

At peak construction levels over the next five years, Gorgon will employ 6,000 people, with up

to half of them to be housed on the island and the project operated on a fly-i, fly-out, FIFO,

basis.

It is expected to have a spend level of $30 billion for construction and service industries and

provide almost $2 billion in royalties.

Warning that Gorgon Project could drive up prices for average Aussie

The largest ever trade deal struck by Australia to sell $50 billion worth of gas to China could

cause extra hardship for average Aussies.

That's according to oil and gas specialist Peter Strachan who warns we could see a repeat of

hyper inflated prices during the last resources boom.

ExxonMobil has struck the deal with PetroChina to sell LNG from the yet to be developed

Gorgon Gas Project on Barrow Island off the West Australian Coast.

Mr Strachan says there's no doubt the massive project will provide billions in royalties and lots

of new, highly paid jobs.

But he warns there's another side to the equation.

"There's maybe, 10,000 or 100,000 people involved in a high tech, high activity area."

"The other 22 million people are seeing the impact of this in rising prices for rent, rising

mortgage costs.

"These costs flow through to other people who are not involved in the high paying jobs."

The proposed Gorgon site on Barrow Island off the West Australian coast.

Photo Gallery

Click image for larger version:

Australia and China are about to sign a $30 billion deal to supply gas from WA's Barrow Island.

The flatback turtle could block the development of a gas pipeline on Barrow Island (file photo).

Babs McHugh and Laurissa Smith by an ant hill on Barrow Island, WA| Babs McHugh

Barrow Island

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2008/s2660434.htm

钟声

呵呵～ 他们的FID终于被中国的投资给促成了～

要是中国早点出手 我就不会拿不到这个项目的职位了... f*** it~

perthfisher

Timor Sea Oil Leak Clean-Up Scaled Back, Plugging Operation Planned


Australian authorities Sunday scaled back a three-week operation to disperse oil and gas

leaking from a Timor Sea drilling rig operated by Thailand's PTTEP company.

Oil and gas has been leaking from the West Atlas drilling platform, 690 kilometers west of

Darwin, since a rupture in an undersea pipe August 21.

The slick from the rig is 170 kilometers from the coast but is reducing in size and requiring less

dispersant, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) told national

broadcaster ABC.

AMSA said scaling back the clean-up operation was appropriate now that a mobile rig towed

from Singapore was 2 kilometers from West Atlas and preparing to drill 2.6 kilometers into the

sea bed to intersect the leaking well and plug it with drilling mud.

PTTEP expects the drilling to take at least four weeks.

Last week Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said concerns about the environmental impact

of the leak had been overstated.

"The latest report available to me indicates no oil-affected wildlife and no evidence of

contamination in the area, which is pleasing," he said.

AMSA has been using C-130 Hercules aircraft flying from Darwin each day to keep the spill in

check.

PTTEP, which has not revealed what caused the leak, has 300 staff deployed working on the

problem and cleaning up the spill.

Speaking at a press conference in Perth on Saturday, PTTEP director Jose Martins said the

leak, initially around 400 barrels a day, was diminishing and that his company would cover the

cost of the clean-up.

Ferguson said a new agency would be set up to investigate accidents at offshore drilling rigs.

"We want to learn from this incident and take the measures necessary to stop it happening

again," he said. "While this is the first blowout in offshore Australia since 1984, and around

1,500 wells have been drilled safely over the last 25 years, there's no room for complacency."

Geochemist Bob Kagi of Perth's Curtin University of Technology noted that oil leaked from the

seabed even without the intervention of humans, and that dispersants sprayed onto slicks

might be more of a problem than the oil itself.

"I think the reason they're using dispersants is to be seen to be doing something," Kagi

said. "Dispersants are often more toxic than the oil itself."

Environmentalists criticized the government for what they perceive as the slow speed of

PTTEP in plugging the leak.

They said it already posed a threat to whales, dolphins and turtles, and warned that the slick

could easily reach the coast and cause ecological damage.

http://rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=80286&hmpn=1

perthfisher

Gorgon gas accident 'unlikely'ABC August 25, 2009, 8:32 am Send


Australia's petroleum production industry body says there is no comparison to be drawn

between the West Atlas oil spill and the proposed Gorgon gas project.

The oil leak in the Timor Sea has led environment groups to call for a reassessment of Gorgon,

which, if it goes ahead, will be Australia's biggest infrastructure project.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he will make a decision about Gorgon this

week.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association says Gorgon is all about

natural gas and there are fewer risks with gas compared to oil.

Chief executive Belinda Robinson says it is important to get some perspective.

"The incident that occurred at West Atlas is a very, very rare incident," she said.

"We haven't had an incident like this in Australia since 1984 and we've only had seven

incidents in the history of the industry."

Environmentalists say that because drilling rigs off the Pilbara will be similar to those in the

Timor Sea, Gorgon should be reconsidered.

Ms Robinson says such comparisons are not appropriate.

"The two projects are very, very different," she said.

"What we're talking about with West Atlas is an oil spill, Gorgon is a gas project.

"Sometimes there's some oil or condensate, condensate co-produced with it. In the case of

most of the projects, it's a very, very light product, which doesn't lend itself to an incident like

the one that we've seen at West Atlas.

"So the operations themselves are just about as different as they can possibly be when it

comes to hydrocarbons."

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett says recovery teams are ready if oil from the West

Atlas leak does wash up on the coast.

Mr Barnett says gas developments do not pose the same kind of threat.

"The developments off the West Australian coast are primarily natural gas developments and

in that case you're not likely to get an oil leakage," he said.

"Nevertheless we do produce a lot of oil in our coastal waters and safety measures are in

place."

Mr Barnett says that while there is always the chance of something going wrong, it is unlikely

there will be another major problem with another project.

"There's always a risk of a ship breaking down or breaking up at sea, and its fuel oil being

released, that can happen," he said.

"There's always a risk of collision between vessels. There's always some element of risk. But

the oil and gas industry is the technically most advanced industry in the world and I have

confidence that we can develop our resources safely and indeed we've been doing that since

the early 1980s.

"We have been a major oil and gas producer in Western Australia with very few incidents."

The company PTTEP Australasia says the mobile drilling unit, West Triton, is expected to leave

Singapore today, bound for the Timor Sea.

When it gets to within two kilometres of the West Atlas, Triton will drill a relief well to allow

the leak to be sealed.

But it is expected to be about three weeks before Triton can get to the scene.


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http://www.newstin.com/go-to-lin ... -accident-unlikely/

oostartit

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