Yay! Love it. MB argued that when Shell bought QCLNG two years ago, the ACCC should have forced it to divest Arrow. It is the last big, undeveloped gas field on the east coast without community restrictions: Instead, the ACCC let the consolidation complete the export cartel. Now all of the Arrow gas is going to

A moderate victory over the gas cartel at Domainfax: Oil and gas giants will be hit with a $6 billion tax hike over the next decade following years of concern that Australia has been hemorrhaging lucrative revenue to multinationals. The decision was made after an 18-month wait for the Coalition’s response to a landmark review into

Exciting news via Platts: On October 22, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry unveiled a model clause that can be used by LNG buyers to remove destination restrictions from long-term contracts. Such restrictions have become more relaxed in renegotiations of LNG contracts or in new contracts among market players, Hiroshige Seko, minister of economy,

Via AFR: Mike Cannon-Brookes’ campaign to reclaim the phrase “fair dinkum power” from Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been swamped with offers of support, and the Atlassian billionaire is in the process of registering a trademark for a logo to promote renewable energy. Mr Cannon-Brookes said he had had hundreds of tweets and emails expressing

I know this bloke means well but having $6bn does not make you expert on everything, via Twitter: ⚡ Argh! Bullshit mate 😡 @ScottMorrisonMP you’ve made me mad & inspired me. We need a movement. We need a brand for Australia’s energy future. We need a rallying cry for Australians who believe in ☀️ 🌬️

Not everything about the gas cartel is bad. It is an effective and massive private carbon tax and that has predictable results, via the ABC: Andy McCarthy has been installing rooftop solar panels in Victoria for 18 years, but even he is stunned by the massive recent growth in demand. “It’s been crazy,” he said.

Via The Australian: Labor will take the National Energy Guarantee — devised by Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg — to the next election as its preferred mechanism for reducing emissions. It will scale up the target in the NEG to meet its goal of reducing emissions by 45 per cent. Opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler

Via the AFR: Labor will side with business and oppose the government granting itself powers to force the divestment of energy companies, arguing it is an ad hoc move which would have no impact on power prices and only serve as an investment risk. The Coalition is divided on the so-called “big stick” powers with

Via the AFR today: From the start, the structure of the ADGSM, with its annual decision on whether to curb LNG exports, was seen as vulnerable to “gaming” by gas buyers as they sought to access lower prices. Last September industry sources and analysts said some commercial buyers were deliberately holding off from signing new

From Renegade Economist comes the fantastic Bruce Robertson (IEEFA) on how Australia destroyed its own energy markets: We discuss policies to reduce gas prices as per international best practice. In light of further consolidation in the industry, we discuss how gas sets the baseline price for energy production in the nation. How much could energy

Hope is kindled: Welcome aboard, Rod. This will aid Labor to tackle the gas cartel when it takes power. It must do it first and foremost or as falling house prices drag down the AUD then we’ll see a new gas and electricity price shock smash into the economy. It will be made even worse

The AFR continues its energy jihad against all Australians today: East coast gas buyers have resigned themselves to the prospect of paying around $10 a gigajoule for gas, even with Labor’s gas plan signalling lower prices, said Cooper Energy chief executive David Maxwell. “There no doubt that the mood has changed a lot in the last six

The AFR ran some more interesting stuff over weekend, this time from former Credit Suisse analyst Mark Samter: “I think Bill Shorten should be held to account for his comments and to explain to the gas market, and to gas buyers because he has left it, I would argue deliberately opaque so that unions and

The AFR offers a useful debate about gas today, though is draws all the wrong conclusions as usual. Its editorial sets the tone under the title “Solution to energy crisis should fall back on the market”: Rather than heavy-handed resource intervention, the best response is to encourage more domestic supply. That means peeling back the

The scab grab in Aussie energy today is quite simply a bloody disgrace. The AFR leads off the farce: The nation’s energy companies and biggest electricity users have given up on politics and begun backroom talks about a self-regulated package of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, restore energy reliability and improve investor stability. They

More warnings today from industry, via The Australian: The Australian Industry Group, which represents 60,000 manufacturing and industrial businesses, said the expected rise of gas prices on the east coast this summer back to near crisis levels threatens to dent the economy and reflects the government’s failure to sanction sound energy policies. Ai Group chief

There is a point at which recalcitrance becomes retardation and the ACCC has well and truly passed it on gas, via the AFR this morning: Competition czar Rod Sims singles out the two key culprits: overbuilding of LNG export capacity in Gladstone, and restrictions on onshore gas in NSW and Victoria that killed off new

After years of energy war from the Coalition that has included: backing emissions trading; trashing emissions trading; backing renewable energy targets; trashing renewable energy targets; backing direct action; trashing direct action; backing the Chief Scientist; trashing the Chief Scientist; backing a National Energy Guarantee; trashing a National Energy Guarantee. Today we get the new vision from