By Jo Nova
In Great Achievements of Government mismanagement, there is a $1 trillion dollar boom in LNG infrastructure around the world, and Australia is one of the top three exporters of LNG, far ahead of the rest, yet we’re about to run out of gas to keep the lights on. It’s so bad we probably have to import gas.
As if anyone needed another example of how small-minded-dictocrat-decrees can screw up a free market and achieve the exact opposite to what they tried to arrange, feast your eyes on Australia.
It takes real planning to start this far ahead and still bollix this up:
Australia was literally the worlds largest LNG exporter in 2020
One of our large energy companies APA Group says a vital Queensland gas pipeline was already running at capacity this winter, and things are so bad, gas power stations here may have to run off diesel, which is stupid on many levels at once. Not only does it lose triple points in Climate-Scrabble, being a dirty high emissions fuel, it’s one of the only fossil fuels we aren’t swimming in. We have 300 years in proven reserves of coal and if we’re lucky, just 32 days of diesel.
Gas shortfall imminent, APA modeling shows
The Australian
Australian households could be hit with “cold showers” due to energy shortages, with the nation’s largest gas pipeline operator warning expensive gas will have to be imported into the country to fill the gap if pending projects are not approved.
New modelling by APA Group shows Australia’s east coast is facing a prolonged period of gas shortfalls, with a vital Queensland pipeline running at capacity over this winter amid ongoing renewable droughts and production disruptions in Victoria.
Officials this winter said the country’s fleet of gas power stations could be forced to run off diesel next year as traditional supplies run dry.
APA Group was all set to start a major expansion of its gas pipeline in 2024 when one of the octopus arms of the government decided it might change the rules. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is suddenly saying it might shift from the current light regulation market to a full price management scheme, upon which all the investor-wallets at APA solidified with permafrost. The boss at APA, Adam Watson, said no one could figure out what the return on investment would be, so they suspended the expansion in May. For some reason, the Labor Party couldn’t see this coming.
The Labor government aimed to reduce emissions, cut coal, and make electricity cheaper, instead as Watson says, we’re headed for a market that is less reliable, less affordable and has higher emissions. “Put another way – cold showers, higher energy bills and coal generating our electricity for longer.”
Australia’s biggest gas deposits are 5,000 km (3,000 miles) from most of the people, and only connected by a small pipe or no pipe at all. The Bass Basin deposit is expected to run out around 2027 just when things get hairy on the electricity grid.
Click to enlarge. Geoscience Australia
There is gas to spare underground, but Victoria banned Fracking “Forever” in 2017, and even put it in the State Constitution, just in case the stupid voters changed their minds. Though apparently this was largely a marketing ploy in Green fashion stakes, and legal eagles argued this was probably meaningless. Victoria did quietly allow some gas exploration a few years later, after they had scared all the investors off.
Poetically, just a few months ago NSW banned offshore mining and exploration for gas and oil. Even though exploration is harmless, you never know what people might find. If the punters knew there was cheap gas nearby they might want to use it.
Meanwhile Snowy Hydro has built a whole new peaking gas plant which was supposed to run on 30% Green Hydrogen (that was the only reason the Labor Government supported it). The gas pipeline is not finished yet either, so when it starts, for the first two months it will run on pure diesel. Another green win for Australia!
Nothing says “stupid country” like being one of the world’s largest exporters of gas and then, in order to keep the lights on and the showers hot, having to import gas. And that’s even assuming the infrastructure is there to distribute the imported gas.
Will we be importing the same gas we previously exported?
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As part of the “stupid country” the state of Victoria is probably peak stupid. That 300 year supply of coal for Australia is actually exceeded in Victoria where the easily accessible brown coal deposits means it’s at least 500 years. It’s well known there is a large gas reserve in Gippsland which has already been explored and assessed. It doesn’t need to be fracked and is associated with potable water that could be easily used for irrigated agriculture. Robert Gottliebsen has been writing about that Gippsland reserve for years in the Australian. Mortlake Power Station (Origin Energy) is the largest gas-fired power station in Victoria which sources gas from the Otway Basin and can produce a peak of 566 MW. Hence, it wouldn’t be difficult to construct a similar facility near that Gippsland reserve. Origin built the Mortlake facility in 4 years flat. The level of stupidity within the Victorian government is just palpable.
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Boomerang gas would surely be a sign that the government has hit peak stupidity
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Oh, I’m sure they have a lot further to go than that…
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Heh heh- l think you’re right. I continue to underestimate their capacity for incompetence
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There is the problem right there. This isnt incompetence. Its deliberate. The Globalists are in charge.
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The American coastal governments do the same thing. On the west coast, California could easily have a LNG pipeline from the Permian basin in Texas, but won’t allow pipelines to be built and would rather import it on bunker-fuel burning tanker ships from Saudi Arabia. And the Northeastern states could easily pump their own natural gas from the Marcellus basin underneath their feet in New York, but have banned fracking and would rather import Russian gas on bunker-fuel burning tankers. Meanwhile, the rest of the continental USA runs on domestic gas and enjoys the cheaper energy prices that come with it.
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Steve, a lot of [older] LNG carriers use the boil-off of the cargo as fuel [part or all their consumption].
Some have a reliq[uification] plant on board, so can cool the boil-off and pump it back into the cargo. These do use fuel oil.
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It was the fake conservative Howard that started this by committing to a bizarre thirty year contract with the Chicomms at world’s cheapest prices with no provision for market prices or inflation.
The contract is still running.
https://amp.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html
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David,
Japan is our biggest customer for gas by far . Although China gets a substantial amount , Japan , South Korea and Taiwan are major customers . When we buy gas overseas it is supposedly coming from Japan . I would posit that the green movement is being funded by the groups making money out of this arrangement .
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No, no. Precisely as intended.
Let’s not attribute to incompetence what can be better explained by utter malfeasance.
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The exports have to get to the coast somehow to fill the tankers
Divert some of that for domestic use
Pollies take land/houses for infrastructure projects via eminent domain so why not gas supplies to keep the local lights on?
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Or follow China’s great initiatives on health and safety and suspend operations for 6-12months while full audits are done.
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John in Oz,
That’s what the neo-Marxists want to see. It’s what the green saboteurs want to see.
That is, to demonstrate that in a western democracy contracts cannot be relied on.
I’m not having it. Not one bit. Divert nothing. Leave the existing contracts as is.
The answer is to open up more of the many gas-fields that exist – see Jo’s map from Geoscience Australia above. Narrabri is an example of massive gas reserves that have been stymied by the saboteurs for years. Put a domestic reserve over the new discoveries of say, 20% for domestic use – like WA did from the very start. That gives certainty.
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For at least the last 20 years Australia has lived off the sheep’s backs. Australians have allowed our selfish selves to be mesmerised by carrot-wielding self-centred politicians who in reality have been stuffing their own pockets. Dan Andrews being the most recent and grotesque example of “idiocrity”. Andrews has thumbed his nose at our Laws and created new ones in the guise of sincerity while, in reality, fostering division and calamity. His diabolical tyranny knows no bounds. Just out of office long enough to minimise scrutiny, he was busy setting up business with his Chinese mates as usual. What sticks in my craw has been the political duplicity associated with the covid cover-up.
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“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” – George Orwell
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Penguinite,
Their perfidy is getting exposed but the public is still voting for them . Same with all the other corrupt organisations. Until accountability is returned this won’t change . Its possible that a “soviet style” collapse is coming as government control is increasing worldwide . The media increasingly resembles “Pravda” and journalism is now mostly thinly disguised propaganda . It is only recently that the gas crisis has been getting attention . If the world economy crashes who benefits ?
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All true and very likely!. It’s a bit like a dripping tap that doesn’t get fixed until a catastrophe occurs!
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A great summary: poor fella my country.
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I just wonder if Aussies will ever wake up to the lunacy we are exposed to on a daily basis?
We should’ve had very low fossil fuel prices over the last 30 years and enjoyed the lowest prices for our electricity over the same period.
But along came the Toxic, unreliable W & S idiocy and we’ve now joined the EU and other loonies on the march to higher prices forever. Or so it seems. I still hope we can change, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Oh no – shock horror – so who are we going to import LNG from now that we’re about to ‘run out of gas’, as seems to be the saying du jour.
We biffed out Labour last year, after 6 years of their running the tank dry… to the point of importing Indonesian coal to keep Parliament House’s lights & heating on – and charging MPs’ electric toy cars… so they could crash them after a few too many wines after work, eg. ex-Minister of Justice [sic].
At least the original Goon Show was funny.
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Over 25 years ago, a colleague and myself had been commissioned by Solid Energy NZ (Gov bureaucracy) to help audit State of Play in use of coal and mining operations. Helen Clarke was then NZ Prime Minister.
On one morning in this audit, we were literally counting the rail cars being used to offload imported Indonesian coal from the sea barge offload point (North Island). The news that morning had Clarke flatly denying that NZ imported coal from Indonesia. Perhaps she even believed it – who knows ?
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Oh yes, Helen Clarke that great Labour socialist who reduced military ties with US (effectively ending the ANZUS Pact), championed Maori rights, same-sex civil unions and prostitution (legalized in 2003). Wow champion of the world, what possible after politics future role could ever deliver the challenges she thrived on?
Hang on native rights, same sex, the cheapening of women (prostitution before trans) of course only one choice – the United Nations Development Programme as administrator from 2009-2017. Nice pay-off.
Forgot to mention she was born just outside of Hamilton. You know the same/same place where Jacinda Ardern was born… must be something in the water down there.
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Greg:
re Goons – I have the original film they made “Penny points to Paradise”.
We’ve had lots of goons for years but no sign of paradise.
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The Goons were funny and more often than not an accurate depiction of events. Especially the political!
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My father and I used to sit in front of our wireless (yes – wireless) in our kitchen in Scotland in tears of laughter at Bluebottle, Eccles and Neddie Seagoon. My mother could never understand them, but that’s another story.
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Same-same Peter: my dad, brother & I would gather round the portable radio – or wireless as Dad called it – and hoot & holler at all the strange weird sounds emanating from it… which Mum thought was ridiculous.
Half the canings I got at school were for mimicking those very same voices – no appreciative BBC audience for me, just marching orders down to the Discipline Master’s room… but that’s another story too.
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Min, Min, the Sun’s hot today. Well, don’t touch it then.
My name’s Dr Bannister. Ahhhh – Didn’t I see you on the stairs?
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I have a lovely TASMA tube radio that my great grandfather bought in 1940. He had it converted to run on batteries as there was no power on the farm at Rocky River, near Uralla. Nanna described the family sitting to listen in to “the wireless”, tuning in to the radio shows. Their first electronic appliance must have seemed like quite the miracle at the time.
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We used to be allowed to stay up late (for our then ages) to listen to the Goons on the wireless.
Nowadays I tune in at bedtime, if I can stay awake, to listen to them on Britcom 1 on Pumpkin FM, via British Radio (or their own app).
One of my uncles was a very keen fan of the Goons and passed on some of his books about them to me. One if them lists every episode.
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It used to be said ‘the Lunatics are running the Asylum.’
Now it could be said ‘the Visionaries in the Humanities’
are running it.
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I loved the Goons – growing up with them – and with a friend making our own Goon shows on a reel to reel tape recorder. I have every one of them stored electronically – courtesy of a Kiwi friend as my recordings were destroyed in the bushfires! I never thought that I would see it all happening in my lifetime. “Henry – there’s someone at the door” – “OK Min – get me my breast plate, now my helmet, now my Blunderbus – now Min – go and open the door!” I just feel like Min waiting for the Chinese to come knocking.
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I remember Min and Henry well. What a hoot.
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‘Modern Min’!
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The one I remember best was when Neddy told his father he had graduated from kindergarten.
“What, and only 19 years old. It’s politics for you”.
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When I look at the gas pipeline map, I still wonder why a pipeline cannot be put through from the Pilbara to Alice Springs, then into the eastern gas network. The 1400 km gas pipeline from the Pilbara down to Esperance on WA’s lower south coast was pushed through in 12 months, and the distances seem equivalent. I don’t believe that installing these pipelines would cost more than building one or more gas import terminals on Australia’s southern coasts, then having to freight the gas right down there, from somewhere that nobody is defining.
I believe that WA gas is around half the cost of gas in the east, so why not use some of the cheaper gas?
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Even if a Pilbara — NT gas line was built, there isn’t any extra capacity at the moment to take more gas from the NT to the rest. The East coast gas network needs to be bigger.
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“bollix”?? verb, transitive…
It’s straight to the pool room with that one!
Now to read the rest!
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Supposed to be “bollocks”?
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Theasaurus.com provides synonyms for “Screw up”
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/screw-up
= Bollix
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Generally, I think it is like this.
It’s bollocks when someone is talking a load of rubbish. Talking a load of bollocks.
Or they cop a bollocking in being told off.
It’s bollix when someone stuffs something up. Bollix it up.
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The looming election should see Albo and Dutton agree that this is a great opportunity to wipe out the Greens and Teals.
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Keep dreaming. I can’t see the Coalition doing it. unless they declared an internecine war on each other and get it over in a week or so.
Both shades of Green are on the ALP’s side anyway.
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This makes me wonder, is there something called ‘Aussie stupid’? Just asking for my country.
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Nobody could actually be that stupid so I conclude that all of the actions that have taken us to this point have been done with extreme malice !
Destroying our electricity grid ( and our economy in the process ) .
Shutting down almost all manufacturing .
Making farming increasingly difficult .
Neutering our defense forces .
Destroying the education system .
Deliberately importing very large numbers of people who don’t share our culture and don’t fill job vacancies .
Deliberately importing almost 3000 people who are at best terrorist sympathizers if not actual terrorists .
The list goes on .
THEY MUST REALLY HATE US !!!!!!
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“THEY MUST REALLY HATE US !!!!!!”
Yes.
They do.
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Ahh, I remember the good old days when it was boil the ‘copper’ for hot water. This was then tempered with cold water for a lathering and ‘sousing’ assisted by a member of the fam or friend. In summer the water was hot enough straight out of the tap. In the yesteryear (real) navy we had cold showers as part of the toughening-up process. We’ve grown too soft so stop your blubbing everyone and welcome the occasional cold shower. You’ll soon get used to the rapid sucking in of breath, adrenalin rush and rapid heart-rate. After all we need to toughen up for gulag life.
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it was boil the ‘copper’
A toast to those who remember their Braemar… wood fired water heater…
With a shepherd’s crook on the gravity feed supplied by a water tank
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The one we had (Metters IIRC) is in a local museum as a reminder – and a model just in case
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From a Canadian…Thank-you Australia…I thought Canada was the only country being ruined by a Woke, Economic Illiterate driven by Blind Green Ideology Prime Minister. I hope the Australians don’t hold on to their PM as long as we have.
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Alas it appears that most western countries are afflicted by this “green” ideology.
Bankruptcy and lights out will be the end result.
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Don’t think anyone has posted this link here:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/08/29/new-zealands-net-zero-green-energy-disaster-is-a-terrible-warning/
“New Zealand’s Net Zero green energy disaster is a terrible warning”
A warning is only useful if those with agency receive it, understand it, and act [appropriately] on it.
For the UK’s own, very own, Edstone ‘Ed’ Miliband, I fear that even the first prerequisite is unlikely.
Understanding it?
Acting appropriately on it??
Buy candles.
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THEY MUST REALLY HATE US !!!!!!
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Yes they did – on Friday!
Perhaps cancel this post.
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FWIW
“Another Load Of Hype ($NVDA)”
“The key question I heard no meaningful answer to — and this is now on two earnings calls in a row — is this:
Where is the customer’s revenue stream, what’s it look like on a coverage basis among your customers on a consolidated basis (that is, how long does it take to pay for your stuff, plus the housing and operating costs, given the customer revenue), how does a new cycle of devices impinge on that from a competitive market point of view on their (your customer’s) end, how much visibility do you have into all of that if any and what reason do you have to believe that said revenue from end users HAS AND WILL cover said acquisition and operating cost AT THE CUSTOMER’S END?
If I sell a lot of Beanie Babies it’s great so long as people want to buy them — but how do I justify a stock priced at forty times sales unless I can demonstrate that the people buying my stuff can turn a profit by doing so and that their investment in my products — the entire reason my stock isn’t selling for five bucks a share — doesn’t get reduced to smoke six months from now when the next generation of chips starts to ship?”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=251931
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FWIW
“Pauline Hanson – Please Explain The Man From Snowy Hydro”
“https://youtu.be/PrHEFPNf7fI
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/08/pauline-hanson-please-explain-the-man-from-snowy-hydro.html
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[…] From JoNova […]
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All very scary, but still does not approach the stupidity of the new UK Labour government. All new gas and oil exploration is now banned and ecoloons, like energy minister Ed Milliband, genuinely believe in being 100% reliant on ‘cheap’ and ‘reliable’ renewable energy.
In the UK, we have Starmergeddon. Translated into Australian, this means Gough Whitlam thinkalikes on steroids.
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