There is no substitute for stupidity in Australia. We do it better than anyone. If energy ran on stupidity, we would have the cheapest power in the world.
Fresh from telling southern states that it can’t have any QLD gas, the Crusifulli government has added to the state’s energy woes.
Queensland secures deal for first gas-fired power plant in over 10 yeas as part of effort to shore up grid
Queensland has reportedly tapped Gina Rineheart-backed Senex Energy to build the state’s first new gas-fired power plant in over a decade. Join SkyNews.com.au for rolling news and political coverage.
During various clashes over policy in recent years, Senex Energy was one of the few to go on a gas production strike.
Why would anybody hand a firm of this nature a vertically integrated business model in which it can control the price of gas and the price of power at peaking points?
Has nobody in QLD heard of competition? This is inviting higher power prices.
The stupid (which should probably be called the corrupt) extends to the AFR where some mysterious “gas executive” goes to great lengths to cherry-pick data in defence of Santos and GLNG.
By 2027 GLNG will predominantly export gas that has been developed specifically for GLNG, including its own gas and gas developed by strategic partners Santos, Senex and Meridien.
There is enough time to avert any 2029 shortfall by accelerating projects like Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project and streamlining project approvals for all new gas developments. But it is not really supply shortfalls that are at the heart of the current debate – it is gas prices.
What manufacturers want is cheap gas that no longer exists. When Bass Strait and the Cooper Basin were developed, oil was the prize and gas was an associated product for which new markets were built. The value of oil from these provinces effectively subsidised gas prices for decades. And in the early days of the coal seam gas boom, prices were low while production ramped up for the LNG plants that were still under construction.
Manufacturers tout US gas prices of $3 without mentioning currency or thermal unit. In fact, there is no $3 gas in the US. The Henry Hub price on Friday was equivalent to $4.90/GJ, but that is not the price industrial customers pay.
“Populist retrospective interventions being pushed by self-interested parties are simply not going to stack up for the government.”
In Ohio, where BlueScope’s North Star plant is located, the average industrial gas price in May this year was more than $17/GJ, higher than Australia’s gas price cap of $12/GJ. In six out of the top 10 manufacturing states in the US, industrial gas prices in May were higher than $12/GJ.
Jeez the AFR is an industry whorebag. The EIA publishes a price series for US industrial gas, and here it is in AUD.
Now, there may have been an hour in May when there was a price spike, but did it last? Moreover, the ACCC records that local industry is typically paying 15-20Gj for gas. This is double and triple the US price over the time series.
We can also throw out the absurd idea that Senex and Meridien aren’t third-party gas. Of course they are.
It is only when we click through a level, which nobody does, that the mysterious “gas executive” is exposed as none other than the CEO of GLNG.
GLNG is the giant gas export suckhole that hasn’t got enough of its own gas and so keeps draining the local market to supply China with cheaper gas than we pay!
If only stupid (corrupt) were energy.
