BG to invest $19.4b in Australian LNG Project

QUEENSLAND —

The project in Queensland state, which is scheduled to start fuel shipments in 2014, is among more than a dozen proposed LNG developments in Australia, worth about A$200 billion ($254 billion), seeking to tap Asian demand for cleaner-burning fuel to curb emissions.

BG and rival Santos won Australian government approval for their Queensland LNG projects on Oct 22 and must comply with about 1,500 state and federal conditions.

“We wouldn't be here today unless we thought we could deliver the project based on those conditions,” Ms Catherine Tanna, managing director of the company’s Australian unit QGC said in a telephone interview today.

The Queensland Curtis LNG Project involves building an LNG plant on Curtis Island, some 450 km north of Brisbane, a 540km underground pipeline network and expanding production in gas fields in the state’s Surat Basin, Ms Tanna said in a conference call today.

BG has reached agreements to sell LNG to customers in China, Japan, Singapore and Chile and will also provide gas to markets in eastern Australia, the Berkshire, UK-based company said in a statement today.

The project, which will have an operating life of at least 20 years, will likely create 5,000 construction jobs over the next four years, according to the statement.BG Group, the United Kingdom's third-largest oil and gas producer, said it will invest US$15 billion ($19.4 billion) in the Curtis liquefied natural gas project in Australia over the next four years, its single biggest investment.

FIRST INVESTMENT COMMITMENT

The BG development is the first coal-seam gas-to-LNG project in Queensland to reach a final investment decision, while Adelaide-based Santos has said it plans to commit to the first phase of its Gladstone LNG venture by the end of the year.

That project, with two production units, may cost A$20 billion, estimates Mr James Bullen, a Sydney-based analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Korea Gas Corp, the world's biggest buyer of LNG, said earlier this month that it is in talks to acquire a 15-per-cent stake in Santos Gladstone project.

Korea Gas has likely agreed to terms and is now waiting for South Korean government approval, Citigroup’s Sydney based analyst Mark Greenwood wrote on Oct 21.

BG will begin with two processing units that will have a combined capacity of 8.5 million metric tons of LNG a year, and “there is significant potential to expand”, QGC said yesterday.

The project is expected to produce one-third of Australia's LNG in the first stage, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said at the briefing.

SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE

“This is a very significant milestone for the Australian economy,” Mr Swan said.

He added: “This will be close to the single biggest investment in a Queensland resource project, most probably the biggest.”

The project will account for an 11-per-cent boost in Australia's total foreign direct investment over the four years of construction, Mr Swan said in an emailed statement.

The Curtis plant will be the most efficient in Australia and the second-most efficient in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, generating about 35 per cent less than other fossil fuels, BG's Ms Tanna said.

“When Australian LNG is used in place of coal to generate electricity in customer countries, up to nine tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are avoided for every tonne produced in the production, liquefaction and export process,” industry group Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, said in an emailed statement today.

“This is because gas-fired power stations emit up to 70 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than coal-burning plants.”

Coal seam gas fields in Queensland and New South Wales contain enough gas to power a city of one million people for 5,000 years, APPEA said, citing the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization. Bloomberg

AUSGROUP  management must  nOt  dO  It

"My Way" bUt  must  dO It  "hIs  waY" 

nOt  wIth   

"The Wind Beneath My Wings"

bUt  with

"The  wInd  beneath  hIs  wIngs"

Aussie churches ban Sinatra’s My Way —

MELBOURNE

Sports anthems and popular songs such as Frank Sinatra’s My Way have been banned from funerals at more than 200 Australian churches after new orders from Melbourne’s archbishop.

The edict follows a study that found the signature song for Australian Rules Football team Collingwood was one of the top requests at Melbourne funerals, along with My Way and the Bette Midler version of   

The Wind Beneath My Wings .

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said sports songs were not appropriate for a service which emphasises the solemn nature of death and is not designed as a celebration of the deceased’s life.

“Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs,” Archbishop Hart wrote in the new guidelines.

“At the funerals of children ... nursery rhymes and sentimental secular songs are inappropriate because these may intensify grief.”

The move in Melbourne has received a mixed reaction, a spokesman for the church said.

One parish priest, Father Bob Maguire from South Melbourne, said the move would make it harder to balance the needs of mourners with those of the church.

He told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper he preferred to see funerals as “family affairs attended by clergy, not a clergymen’s affair attended by family”. AFP

Mr Oakeshott said his decision to back Ms Gillard had angered some parliamentary colleagues and he knew this would make it difficult to deliver the US$9 billion ($12 billion) package for rural Australia the independents had negotiated with her. — An independent Australian politician whose support was crucial to keeping Prime Minister Julia Gillard in power on Friday knocked back an offer to become a minister in her minority government.AFP

Mining drives Aussie job boom

SYDNEY

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said the jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage point after a surprise rise in July, bettering analyst forecasts of 5.2 per cent.

The buoyant statistics sent share prices 1 per cent higher, with the ASX 200 ending up 45 points at 4,582.24.

The Australian dollar hit a four-month high of 92.34 US cents on expectations the central bank will hike interest rates.

“The Australian economy is clearly on fire. They are creating jobs at break-neck speed,” said HSBC economist Frederic Neumann.

Booming coal and iron ore exports to Asian countries such as China helped Australia skirt the financial crisis without entering recession, earning it the tag “the wonder from Down Under”.

Official figures this month showed surging annual growth of 3.3 per cent after a 1.2-per-cent rise in the second quarter, which was the biggest leap in three years.

However, the Reserve Bank of Australia this week left rates on hold at 4.50 per cent for the fourth consecutive month, saying that inflation was close to its target and that the global outlook was uncertain.— Australia’s mining-led economy created another 30,900 jobs last month, pushing unemployment down to 5.1 per cent and boosting the likelihood of higher interest rates, figures showed yesterday.

Agencies

It's time to revisit...

The past – this co might hv lost out to Msian co on Gorgon, due to pricing. Project that is not won because of price war & undercutting is a not necessarily a bad thing. It’s better to be safe than to face cost overrun later. A co that practices risk management is a good thing.

The announcement of contracts won in mid August was  overwhelmed by the heat of Genting (or  Genting’s twins…), so were many other counters.

Dividend has already been announced, XD 22Oct

The last coverage had been paid coverage, when it was mentioned the coverage is discontinued, parting ways is always having nothing nice to say isn’t it?

Political scene is much clearer, as of today Australia has its first female PM, having the extra votes to form the government.

Tendering activity improves due to strong long term outlook on oil & gas and iron ore sectors.

Any sifu can post the latest chart & explain? ....MacD line crossing signal line ....

Australia clocks fastest growth in three years

SYDNEY

Annual growth clocked 3.3 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said, smashing analysts’ forecasts and raising the prospect of renewed interest rate increases after an aggressive series of hikes was paused in June.

Economists had expected a 0.9 per cent rise from the March quarter and 2.8 per cent from a year earlier, while the annual figure compares with official forecasts of 3.0 per cent growth over the year to next June.

“These are an outstanding set of figures that all Australians can be proud of,” said Treasurer Wayne Swan. “Prime Ministers elsewhere would kill for a set of outcomes such as these,” he added.

The fastest quarterly increase since 2007 came from construction and scientific services, as well as mining.

Consumer spending rose a strongerthan- expected 1.6 per cent, while exports were 5.6 per cent higher. — Australia’s economy surged 1.2 per cent in the three months to June, the biggest jump in three years, data showed yesterday, boosted by a surprise recovery in consumer spending and soaring mining exports.AFP

There are signs that construction is recovering in the country and the outlook for business investment is “very strong”, Mr Swan said in his first weekly economic note since the general election on Aug 21 which resulted in a hung Parliament. BLOOMBERG