Oh and by the way, if we went nuclear we would also reduce our C02 emissions as opposed to trying to hide them under a rock. (a solution by the way that has few friends at the U.N it seems)

I wonder how much of Australia’s resources boom is heading overseas?

So they will get 34% of the profits, plus they will take an upfront fee! I wonder if we can get their team over to Oz to handle our resource agreements?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/world/americas/18brazil.html

Michael West is one of the good journalists out there, I like a lot of his work. Hope we has something to say on the subject.

I was thinking more about the CO2 -- the deal might be a reflection of what these companies, who probably know a thing or two about inground storage of gases, think of the technology!
Chin up!

One more thing…I have not seen this Co2 thing reported at all in Aus MSM….what the hell is going on in this country?
I’ll send it to Michael West and see if he knows anything about it.

Martin Ferguson is a complete dill, it just goes to show how our politicians have no idea how to get a good commercial deal for the nation.

Great, so the companies get the LNG dollars, dig the country up, make a bundle then leave us with the problem of what to do with the C02. What happens if it starts to leak out? Well I guess that will now be up to taxpayers to sort out. So we have sold our stake for maybe 10% cut of the profits and assumed a big chunk of risk that will be around for hundred of years.

But can you find anyone in the mainstream media who questions the the Gorgon deal or in the Federal Opposition for that matter?

Thanks also for the information about Brazil..are you trying to make me cry?

Greg have you seen this? The implications are quite staggering!
Martin Ferguson is a consumate ass!

Chevron Australia CO2 Liability Deal May Be Precedent

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc agreed to invest in the $37 billion Gorgon natural gas venture only after Australia’s government assumed liability for potential damages hundreds of years from now. That may set a precedent in this resource-rich nation.

The three oil companies said Sept. 14 they will proceed with the liquefied natural gas development, the continent’s biggest single investment, at Barrow Island off the northwest coast. The national and Western Australia state governments removed a key obstacle last month when they accepted “any long term liability” should carbon dioxide captured from the project escape sequestration, or storage, two kilometers underground.

“Letting taxpayers ultimately take responsibility for any problems with the CO2 sequestration is a calculated risk by the government,” said Craig Wallace, a senior associate of Lavan Legal in Perth who has advised companies on Australia’s draft climate-change legislation.

“It sets a precedent. It’s probably very likely other operations would get on the bandwagon.”

Gorgon is the largest of 10 proposed LNG projects that Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says will make Australia “an energy superpower.”

The project’s importance in creating wealth, jobs and investment justified government acceptance of liability…

Brazil’s new resource policy has already sent efficientarians into gruff, neo-classical orbit. They’re predictably irked that Brazil no longer intends to extract its oil as quickly as possible at current market prices! Now the South American giant has additional gravel to drop on the heads of economists: it’s decided to build all its future drilling rigs at home:

Asian yards miss out on Petrobras drillship contracts – Rio De Janeiro: Asian shipyards are to lose out on a lucrative offshore opportunity in light of the news that that Brazilian oil company Petrobras is to hand out around $9.8bn in chartering costs to offshore operators for expensive drillships – but only if they are built in Brazil. –SeaTrade Asia Online, 11 September 2009

Brazil sourced its previous (and current) rig building contract the old fashioned way: by making a global tender. But given the capacity of Brazilian shipyards, myriad other resources found in Brazil, and especially the ability to make the full range of specialty metals, why not build all the drill rigs and drillships at home? Fabricado em Brasil, in contrast to Ricardian comparative advantage, will make economists very unhappy. As Brazil intends to spend at least 175 billion over the next 5 years developing offshore oil, making western economists unhappy (who neither understand oil) is not such a bad thing.
-Gregor

http://gregor.us/policy/diy-brazil/

We seem to bend over backwards to sell off our natural resources and we will end up buying energy sourced from Australia from foreign corporations.

The other very Austrlaian thing we do is not value add, we just ship the raw materials off (and think we are getting a bargain) and then buy imports made from our own raw materials, where the cost of the raw materials we sold is recovered many times over. Now how stupid is that!