We are literally throwing massive energy stimulus into the sea

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It’s maddening. At Domain:

One in three tankers loaded with cargoes of Australian liquefied natural gas last month is either anchored at sea or taking a longer-than-usual journey to its destination as coronavirus prompts more buyers to delay deliveries.

…In the latest sign of the increasing pain in the sector, new figures reveal the number of tankers loaded in June fell from 93 to 85, and of those, one third had their deliveries delayed. Energy consultancy EnergyQuest said 33 cargoes were still either anchored offshore, sailing around in circles or travelling at slower speeds while awaiting destination instructions.

What can I say? The local price is still around $8Gj:

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As gas slowly burns off from tankers sailing in circles because export customers don’t want it.

It’s not going to end any time soon, as Shell gas cartelier made plain overnight. Ben van Beurden, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell:

“Energy demand, and certainty mobility demand, will be lower even when this crisis is more or less behind us. Will it mean that it will never recover? It is probably too early to say, but it will have a permanent knock for years. It is most likely not going to be a v-shaped recovery.”

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This is still the perfect time to install domestic gas reservation and break the export cartel and contracts. The customers don’t even want it.

Yet, instead, the Morrison Government has betrayed the promised gas reservation deal with Centre Alliance that delivered $158bn in tax cuts and is pursuing very expensive onshore gas development that will not lower prices at all and risks poisoning NSW for thousands of years.

This is literally throwing into the sea the massive possible stimulus of much lower gas and electricity prices permanently for every business and household covering 90% of the Australian population.

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We could get the local gas price down to $4Gj no problem at all, instead of being the greatest pack of patsies on earth:

It would take one decent media campaign to tip over this farce yet where is it? No media. No Labor. No lobbies. No intellectuals. No economists. No Centre Alliance even.

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It’s bizarre.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.