Australian LNG

Hmmm… via the ABC: Thousands of Victorians will soon be eligible for a new power rebate from three major companies, under a new deal brokered by the State Government.

Via the AFR: AGL Energy has shrugged off scepticism about its $250 million plan to import gas into Victoria, kicking off an official process to invite LNG players to supply the project.

Quite rightly: US player Harbour Energy’s ambitions for an $11 billion takeover of Santos have run immediately into political hot water, as South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis signalled the state would seek to prevent the oil and gas producer falling into foreign hands.

Via the AFR: Big American oil is preparing to make a $11 billion all-cash takeover offer for Santos as the next step in play for regional and global relevance in rapidly reforming liquid natural gas markets.

Via The Australian: Queensland is exporting gas at record rates as resurgent oil prices boost LNG contract revenue and a Chinese push to reduce coal-fired power and heating pushes LNG spot prices and medium-term demand forecasts higher.

Via The Economic Times: India will save about Rs 4,000 crore after it got US energy major Exxon Mobil Corp to lower the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after the new rates kick-in from January next year.

From The Australian: Gladstone’s big gas export plants pumped out LNG at near record rates last month, drawing gas from as far as Victoria to take ­advantage of resurgent LNG spot prices, despite major maintenance works.

Hoocoodanode, via the AFR: Industrial energy buyers on the east coast are seeing a fresh deterioration in the choice and terms of gas supply offers, only weeks after the federal government’s deal with Queensland LNG exporters for additional local supplies.

Via the FT: Oil traders have a new political risk factor to absorb from Saudi Arabia with the move by the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to detain some of the kingdom’s most prominent business people, officials and princes.

Nobody cares but: GFG Alliance chairman Sanjeev Gupta says Australia has the highest power costs in the world when its high wholesale prices are combined with its huge volatility.

From the Daily Heil: Billionaire energy mogul Elon Musk was almost brought to tears by Australia’s deepening electricity crisis that has prices soaring out of control.

The LNGers get such an easy run considering the economic black hole they have unleashed.

And nobody has yet discussed it.

Via SCMP: This winter, more homes in China will be heated up by natural gas as Beijing would have liked amid its push for local governments in northern China to use cleaner burning gas.

Via the AFR: The key Labor states of Victoria and South Australia have left the door open to the National Energy Guarantee while maintaining their rage against the Turnbull government for shifting the policy behind their backs.

Via the US Energy Information Agency: Source: Australia Energy Market Operator Gas Bulletin Board, IHS Australia became the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2015 and is likely to overtake Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter by 2019.

Ian Verrender does a good job today at the ABC: A little over a decade ago, then-West Australian premier Alan Carpenter had his back against the wall.

Via The Australian comes the marvel of Australia’s LNG boom: The huge impact of the OPEC oil cartel’s battle with US shale producers has been starkly revealed in a national industry survey that says Australia’s oil and gas industry logged a combined 2015-16 underlying net loss (excluding writedowns) of $4.5 billion.

The energy circle of farce is now complete: Payments of $50 a year for every Queensland household will be handed out by the Palaszczuk government as part of an “affordable energy” plan released ahead of a state election.

UBS has a go at it today: East coast gas market dynamics are going through a fundamental shift The market is resigning itself to the fact that recent actions to restrict LNG exports and divert gas into the domestic market will not have a significant impact on bringing down east coast gas prices.

No doubt about it, domestic gas reservation is not strong enough if Santos can pump this out: Exporting losses while killing pensioners at home with a fat price gouge.

Via the AFR: Labor states – or a future federal Labor government – that pursue more ambitious renewable energy targets than those set under the Turnbull government’s proposed new Reliability and Emissions Guarantee will face more costly reliability standards, which could increase the cost of electricity in their markets.

Via CBA: LNG is increasingly becoming an important commodity for Australia.

I am going to do back-flip with a triple pike here.

My head is exploding on this new energy stuff.