Latest news with #gasindustry
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Federal-Sarawak agreement exempts state from some PDA requirements, says Abang Jo
Premier Abang Johari Openg said Sarawak will ensure clear, stable regulations to support gas industry growth following the affirmation of its authority over distribution. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA : The agreement by the federal and Sarawak governments as contained in their joint statement exempts the state from certain provisions under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA), said premier Abang Johari Openg. Abang Johari told the state assembly today the joint statement signed last Wednesday affirmed the recognition of Sarawak's executive authority over the distribution of gas within its territory and removed any perceived regulatory uncertainty. 'Federal laws like the Gas Supply Act 1993 do not apply to Sarawak, and the state is exempt from the requirements imposed by Sections 6(1) and 6(3) of the PDA to obtain the prime minister's permission to undertake distribution of gas business in Sarawak. 'This joint declaration reaffirms that federal and state laws on distribution of gas shall be respected by all persons undertaking the distribution and supply of gas in Sarawak,' The Borneo Post quoted him as saying. Last week, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the joint statement recognised Sarawak's growing capabilities and its rights under the PDA and the Distribution of Gas Ordinance, while preserving Petronas's strategic role at the national level. Among the matters in the joint statement is the understanding that all federal and Sarawak state laws related to the distribution of gas within the state must coexist and be respected by all parties conducting such activities in Sarawak, including Petronas and Petros. Petronas will continue to perform its functions, activities, responsibilities and obligations as mandated under the PDA and its associated regulations. Meanwhile, no Sarawak state law shall affect any agreements or arrangements between Petronas and its subsidiaries with third parties, including Petros, in relation to Petronas's activities in the state. Abang Johari said that with Sarawak's legislative and executive authority over gas distribution now affirmed, the state government would ensure regulatory clarity and stability to foster industry growth. 'Sarawak will implement its plans to increase gas production within its territory, sustainable utilisation of gas by industries, and for the production of clean energy,' he said. Such initiatives included the development of carbon capture and storage sites to tap into Sarawak's potential gas reserves off its western coast and to support the planned Kuching Low Carbon Gas Hub. 'All these projects will increase the gross domestic product for Sarawak by RM120 billion and create 185,000 high-income jobs,' he said.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Woodside's North West Shelf approval just a stepping stone to enable Browse project
When all the hype and the fury is stripped away, the decision to extend the life of the gigantic North West Shelf gas plant boils down to one thing. "It's really all about Browse," says RISC Advisory boss Martin Wilkes in relation to the huge gas field off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Browse is one of the country's biggest untapped resources projects, with gas reserves large enough to meet the equivalent of Australia's entire domestic demand for almost 20 years. To the Western Australian government and the state's industry, it represents energy security, jobs and billions of dollars of investment. And for some of the world's biggest oil and gas companies — not to mention Australia's flag-bearer, Woodside — Browse presents as the last great hurrah for the country's gas export industry. But the problem is Browse is a long way from anywhere. It's also full of carbon. What's more, it has no shortage of detractors. For those reasons, it has always remained an elusive development for its backers since being discovered more than half a century ago. The North West Shelf is therefore the only viable pathway to development Browse has left, according to those in the industry who have followed the project for decades. "They want to bring Browse back to the North West Shelf, which has been on the cards for a pretty long time, really," Mr Wilkes explains. "And that development has nowhere to go unless they got an extension of the North West Shelf. "It's a big gas field, but it's in the middle of nowhere. "That's why it hasn't been developed — it's hard." By provisionally extending the licence for the North West Shelf to operate another 40 years to 2070, Canberra has thrown Browse a lifeline. But in doing so, it has also set itself on a collision course. That's because Browse is likely to be the mother-of-all environmental fights — a pivotal clash between those seeking an end to new fossil fuel mega-project and those in the opposite corner. Alex Hillman from the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) says the resistance to any bid to develop Browse will be fierce. "It's insane," Mr Hillman says of the decision announced on Wednesday. "This will get people marching on the streets. Climate groups have labelled Browse a "carbon bomb", claiming the project could lead to emissions of up to 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over its lifetime — an amount three times Australia's annual pollution output. In anticipation of this charge, Woodside and its project partners in Browse have pivoted in recent times to say they'll try to capture and bury much of the carbon contained in the Browse gas fields. Indeed, the carbon content of Browse is in its own right significant. Carbon dioxide accounts for as much as 12 per cent of the fields' reserves — far higher than most projects and utterly dwarfing Woodside's Scarborough development, which has a carbon content of less than 1 per cent. Mr Hillman says there are big questions marks still hanging over the effectiveness and viability of carbon capture and storage technologies. He points to the well-documented challenges at the Gorgon LNG project off the Pilbara coast, where US behemoth Chevron has struggled to make the technology work. Even if Woodside could do a better job, he says it would barely make a difference, noting the lion's share of emissions from gas projects come from the burning of the fuel — not the release of carbon from the fields. And on this score — the measure of so-called scope 3 emissions — he says the Browse partners aren't proposing to do much of anything at all. "The vast bulk of emissions is still in the scope three for customers," Mr Hillman says. "If Woodside manages to implement carbon capture and storage and it manages to do it successfully … it's still only a tiny impact on the total facility's lifetime emissions." Others take a different view. Steve Lewis is an industry veteran whose consultancy, BrightSource, helps gas users such as mines buy the fuel. Mr Lewis says to understand the enduring appeal of Browse it's first necessary to get a handle on the composition of WA's economy. He notes that gas is still the main fuel used for so much of the state's industrial base, from mineral processing to mining. And much more than other states, he says the west is still heavily dependent on gas to generate electricity — a dependency that's only likely to grow deeper amid efforts to get out of state-owned coal by the end of the decade. While gas accounts for only a tiny share of the electricity mix on the eastern seaboard, he says in WA its more like a third. Such is WA's need for gas, he notes the state uses more of the fuel in its own economy than all of the eastern states combined despite having a much smaller population. "Western Australia has a long history of gas usage going back to the 80s," Mr Lewis says. "It's very significant for the state." According to Mr Lewis, the North West Shelf itself marked the beginning of WA's modern gas industry and, more broadly, Australia's presence as an LNG superpower. But he notes the fields which have underpinned the North West Shelf and its colossal importance — the facility once accounted for 1 per cent of Australia's economy — are in terminal decline. To that end, Mr Lewis says the decision to extend the life of the gas plant is aimed at solving two problems — keeping a huge, valuable asset alive for longer and enabling the development of another one. By piping Browse gas 900 kilometres south and processing it through the North West Shelf, he says Woodside et al would avoid the need for a new LNG plant that would come at huge cost. Secondly, and by extension, they would also pay less in processing — or "tolling" — fees to the Shelf than they would in depreciation at a vastly expensive new LNG plant. After all, he says, the costs of building the North West Shelf have already been recovered by its owners. "It's all about encouraging more gas supply into the state by using existing infrastructure," he says. "And that's an economically efficient way to develop gas fields and gas projects — to use existing infrastructure to toll new gas to ensure there's enough gas for the state going forward." In the absence of Browse, Mr Lewis reckons WA is headed for structural shortages in gas that could have painful consequences for the state's economy. Aluminium refineries that are WA's biggest users of gas could struggle to survive, he warns, shortfalls would lead to sky-high prices that would also make it harder to build gas-fired generators needed to help replace retiring coal plants. Perversely, Mr Lewis says a raft of new critical minerals processing plants required for the energy transition could also be hit — or left on the drawing board. "It becomes pretty challenging," Mr Lewis says, if Browse is never developed. "The market operator forecast is there won't be sufficient supply from around 2028, 2029 onwards unless significant new amounts of gas come into the market. "And that's really just a function of existing fields in decline." For Mr Wilkes and Mr Lewis, an extension of the North West Shelf's operating licence is one thing, but access to enough gas to keep its giant refrigerators turning natural gas into LNG is another. There are already indications about what might happen in the event of a failure on that front. Last year, Woodside shut one of these refrigerators — or trains as they are known in the industry — that had been part of the original development more than 40 years ago. "There are several implications, aren't there," says Mr Wilkes when asked about what would happen if insufficient amounts of gas are found to replace depleting supplies at the North West Shelf. "One is that facility gets dismantled and abandoned earlier than it would have done otherwise. "Another is the gas never gets to market, never gets produced." For Mr Hillman from the ACCR, that would be best outcome. He reckons the dogged pursuit of Browse by its corporate and political backers flies in the face of commercial common sense, saying the project comes with huge risks and may never be profitable. Worse still, he argues, Browse would make a mockery of Australia's ambitions to stamp out greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonise by the middle of the century. "This just enables Woodside to continue making bad decisions with investor funds," Mr Hillman says. "It enables Woodside to chase this dream of investing in this project which it's been trying and failing to do for years. "We don't think Browse stacks up financially, but that doesn't mean the project won't happen.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
LNG will be ‘essential' in helping tackle the global challenge of climate change
Woodside Chief Executive Meg O'Neill says she is 'delighted' with the government's decision to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas project until 2070. Ms O'Neill emphasised the importance of energy security and potential expansion. She outlines steps for complying with government-set environmental conditions and discusses strategies for managing carbon emissions while ensuring a reliable LNG supply. 'I am delighted with the Minister's proposed decision; I am delighted for our employees, the men and women who keep gas flowing,' Ms O'Neill told Sky News business reporter Ed Boyd. 'LNG has an essential role to play in helping the global challenge of climate change.'
ABC News
13-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Woodside's proposed changes to Browse gas development explained as public consultation opens
Woodside Energy and its joint venture partners have been trying to get federal and state environmental approval for the massive $30 billion Browse gas project off WA's Kimberley coast since 2018. Now the company has asked WA's energy regulator if it can change the proposed project to "reduce the environmental risk". WA's Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] is seeking public input before deciding whether to accept and assess the new proposal. So what does all this mean? Woodside says it's the biggest untapped gas reserve in Australia and would produce 11.4 million tonnes of gas each year. It's slated to begin operations in 2030 and would run for up to 44 years in the Torosa gas field, 425 km offshore from Broome under a large coral reef system in the Browse Basin. The project is critical for Woodside because it would supply its North West Shelf Karratha Gas Plant, a plant it wants to extend the life of. But it also has potentially serious impacts on the environment in the Browse Basin, including the ecosystems and corals at Scott Reef, Sandy Islet and its nesting green sea turtle population, as well as migrating pygmy blue whales and many other local species. Woodside needs WA EPA approval for the parts of the project in state waters. It needs separate federal approval for those parts in Commonwealth waters. In February 2024, the state EPA reportedly sent a letter to Woodside with a preliminary view the proposal was "unacceptable". In March this year, Woodside wrote to the EPA asking to amend the project after "guidance from the EPA". The company wants five amendments which "are expected to result in lower risk of impact to the Western Australian environment". It wants to reduce the size of the project's "development envelope" or footprint from around 1,220 square metres to 78 square kilometres. Woodside said it would no longer include the Scott Reef shallow water habitats or Sandy Islet, but of concern to environmentalists, "there is no change to the area of direct or indirect seabed disturbance estimates". But it also wants to move drilling away from habitats critical to the survival of green turtles. And it's proposing further measures to reduce the risk of underwater noise and artificial light harming the green turtles. Woodside wants to use what it calls "best practice technology" to minimise the risk of a well "blow-out" and spill of natural-gas hydrocarbon liquids during drilling. It says trials in the Gulf of Mexico showed the technology could reduce the chance of a subsea spill and "immediately stop the flow of hydrocarbons to the environment". This would reduce the time taken to contain a spill from 77 days to just 12 hours, the company says, reducing the risk of a "blow-out" to "lower than remote". The Greens think this is completely unbelievable. WA Premier Roger Cook likes the plan. "It's a very positive step and it's a sign that Woodside are listening to the concerns of the EPA and the community," he said. But environmental groups went for the jugular, claiming the changes were tinkering at the edges without reducing the risk to the environment. WA Greens fossil fuel and climate spokesperson Sophie McNeill told ABC Radio Perth the changes were not significant, accusing the company of "sneaky" and "deceitful" behaviour. "All they've done is shift a few drilling locations. They haven't changed anything else," Ms McNeill said. "It poses incredible risks still to the endangered marine life that live there at Scott Reef." Primarily, she said there was no way Woodside could stop an oil spill in 12 hours, as opposed to 77 days previously. "We just don't believe it," she said. Woodside said the amendments "demonstrate our commitment to further avoid and minimise potential environmental impacts from the proposed development." Public submissions to the EPA on the plan are open for four weeks. After that, the EPA will decide whether it will accept it. If it does, it will begin a scientific examination of whether the proposed changes make a significant difference to the environmental risks. If they don't accept it, it'll be a big blow to Woodside and its partners, which will have to decide whether further changes are warranted.
