Mining
Greens call for EPA to explain board behaviour
ABC
The WA Greens want to know if board members of the Environmental Protection Authority who declared interests during assessments continued to carry the assessments out.
It has been revealed that two board members declared interests in more than 40 assessments over ten years, including the James Price Point gas hub proposal.
Woodside lifts lid on Browse blowout
The Australian
MATT CHAMBERS
THE Woodside Petroleum-led Browse liquefied natural gas project off the coast of Western Australia has revealed for the first time the capital cost of the controversial development at James Price Point in a formal declaration to the state and federal governments.
The five Browse partners have also requested that their retention lease on the big offshore gas fields in the Browse Basin be varied from a version pushed by former Woodside chief Don Voelte that committed them to studying onshore development at James Price Point, which is 60km north of Broome.
BHP sells off stake in $45 billion Browse gas project
ABC
BHP Billiton has signed off on the sale of its stake in the $45 billion Browse gas project in Western Australia.
The $1.7 billion sale to PetroChina was finalised late yesterday.
It comes less than two months after operator Woodside announced it would shelve the project at James Price Point near Broome.
Wide ramifications for EPA decisions from trial
ABC
David Weber
On the face of it, a court case against the environmental approval of an abandoned project seems like a silly waste of time and money.
Yet The Wilderness Society’s action against the multi-billion dollar James Price Point gas hub, which operator Woodside dumped in April, has now been heard in the WA Supreme Court.
But it’s not the Wilderness Society that’s been pushing for the case to continue, it’s the State Government.
Chief Justice reserves decision in gas hub case
ABC
The Chief Justice has reserved his decision in the Wilderness Society’s case against the approval of the James Price Point gas hub, north of Broome.
The Wilderness Society and Goolarabooloo man Richard Hunter had taken legal action against the project before Woodside announced that it would not proceed with the hub.
Green group puzzled by gas hub legal stoush
ABC
The Wilderness Society says a Supreme Court challenge over the Kimberley gas hub site is still going ahead, despite Woodside’s decision to abandon the project.
The society last year lodged legal action against the Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision to recommend the project at James Price Point go ahead.
Although Woodside abandoned the plan, the court hearings are still due to go ahead next week.
Premier Colin Barnett disappointed by protestor’s snub
News.com.au
WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett says he is “disappointed” Kimberley gas hub protesters have cancelled a meeting with him despite pushing the idea during the recent election campaign.
In January, Broome residents urged the premier to attend an open community forum to discuss the social impacts of Woodside Petroleum’s proposed gas hub at James Price Point.
Buru seeks approvals for new round of fracking in the Kimberley
ABC
Ben Collins
Buru Energy is planning to use the controversial process of fracking in five gas wells between Broome and Derby,
Show me new plans, Minister tells State
The West Australian
Peter Kerr
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has stopped the clock on the Commonwealth’s environmental approval process for the James Price Point gas hub until he receives fresh details of any reworked State plans for the site.
The decision complicates the Barnett Government’s attempt to rescue something from the wreckage of the decision by Woodside Petroleum and its joint venture partners to walk away from the controversial $40 billion land-based LNG hub, amid spiralling costs.
Fracking the Canning Basin
Indymedia Australia
Gerry Georgatos – Western Australia’s Canning Basin (photo abc.net.au) will soon be talked about as the next resources mining frontier. The James Price Point $40 billion gas hub proposal for all intents and purposes has been dumped but the State’s Premier, Colin Barnett, will pitch the extraction of natural gas from the Canning Basin as the way to go in the pursuit of State revenue. Most of the gas will be exported.
The shale gas deposits of the Canning Basin are among the richest in the world.
On Tuesday, Premier Barnett introduced a Parliamentary Bill seeking to develop the vast Canning resource. The Bill will formalise the agreement between the Government and the venture partners Buru Energy and Mitsubishi Corporation.