LNG in British Columbia, Here Comes the Tax Evaders-Petronas-Chevron-Shell Canada-Steelhead-AltaGas

  Assembled by Grant G


With Paul Godfrey's Postmedia newspaper business in total disarray....With Postmedia investigative journalism listed as an endangered species(I believe Postmedia investigative journalism is actually already extinct, no sightings reported in five years)....Postmedia is a mere corporate soapbox disguised as print media.... 

Further down Below this posting is some LNG project information posted in The Financial Post...The article below appeared a couple of months ago(November 2nd 2015)......Why am I posting the below information? There is a simple answer....and it has to do with our domestic legislative scribers/media...And it also has to do with British Columbia' s current loyal opposition party, that being John Horgan's BC NDP ...

Christy Clark...and natural gas minister Rich Coleman made the outrageous claim that three LNG terminals would create 100,000 LNG jobs....Here are direct quotes Rich Coleman made on February 22/2014......

________

LNG minister laughs at the skeptics

 "I get a kick out of some of the other folks out there saying: 'You're behind schedule.' "No we're not. We're actually right on the time frame that I established."

One thing that works in the government's favour is the scale of the enterprise. The values are so vast that even delivering a fraction of the potential could count as a win.

Coleman said: "They say: 'They can't all go ahead.' "I say: 'OK. Let's have three LNG terminals.' That's $100 billion. That's 100,000 jobs."

It's that comfort level that's giving him the kicks, and the amusement. snip..


http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=9cc9a3fd-2f0b-4b77-b2e1-40ddae5a1039&k=33176

 Three LNG terminals....100,000 jobs....Really Rich Coleman....?

The Financial Post is not a British Columbia oriented newspaper, it`s a corporate newspaper, however, the LNG projects mentioned in the below Financial Post article are proposed British Columbia projects, so, in light of Rich Coleman and Christy Clark's LNG job claims one would think that The Province Newspaper..The Vancouver Sun..Global BC..CKNW....Keith Baldrey..Michael Smyth..Vaughn Palmer...Les Leyne...Tom Fletcher...BC's legislative reporters would have jumped all over the below information.....But all we heard from those deaf, blind and dumb reporters was silence...Not a single word from any of the above mentioned news outlets(?)..

Read the below paragraphs....


____________



Steelhead LNG is widely considered a dark horse in the race to build export projects on the West Coast, but despite substantial challenges, a number of analysts note the company is rapidly making progress and has begun wooing potential customers in Asia. Kuzemko was in Singapore last week........

 The company, however, does not have a cost estimate for the Malahat LNG facility, which would process 900 million cubic feet of natural gas from northern B.C. per day......

 Asked how Steelhead LNG would keep a lid on its costs, Kuzemko said the Malahat LNG project is designed as a floating LNG (or FLNG) facility that would be built in Asia at a lower cost and floated across the Pacific to its destination on Vancouver Island..

 “Near-shore FLNG is becoming much more competitive,” Munton said. “You are starting to see the concept and the technology take hold.”........

http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/steelhead-lng-vs-the-salish-sea-underwater-pipeline-must-be-negotiated-before-financing-can-be-secured?__lsa=7fc2-1733____

Ok.....Steelhead LNG has clearly stated that their proposed floating facility would be built entirely in Asia and barged to BC and hooked up to an existing pipeline in Washington state...Meaning the project would employ almost no one...All they require is 70 miles of pipeline to be built(40 miles of pipeline on the bottom of the Salish Sea(Georgia straight)....Seabed pipelines are laid down by a specialized ship...

What do you have to say Rich Coleman...30,000 jobs laying that pipe?...How many workers can fit on that ship....Oh, and as for the actual pipe...That too is coming from China,,..

The mainstream media reporting on LNG in the province of British Columbia is pathetic and sad...and it`s not that those reporters and columnists are stupid it`s because their corporate bosses at Postmedia forbade any domestic investigative journalism related to LNG and in particular to the LNG promises made by Christy Clark's BC Liberals...Postmedia writers do but one thing on LNG...They quote LNG industry pimps and quote BC Liberal spindoctors...

If it wasn't so tragic one could almost laugh....The scale of Christy Clark and Rich Coleman's lies are boundless...

What is even more amusing is...The Straight Goods reported on the new big thing in LNG on May 24th/2015 with this posting...

The Beginning of The end for Behemoth Land-Based LNG Export Plants(Petronas`s Achilles Heel, Finding Profit)

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2015/05/the-beginning-of-end-of-behemoth-land.html

 

That article explained how the next wave of LNG liquefaction facilities will be floating, versatile, mobile and ....And built in Asia and barged into place...Thus creating almost no employment, merely temporary pipeline work.....And, you`ll love this...

 AltaGas...From the same Financial Post article...AltaGas has a floating LNG liquefaction proposal for British Columbia too(Douglas Channel LNG... in Kitimat)

But get this...AltaGas, their floating facility will be made in China too...and, there is an existing LNG pipeline already there, no need to even build a pipeline....How many jobs will that project create Christy Clark?...30,000??? 20,000?....How about thirty jobs!

Another totally foreign built LNG facility being barged to British Columbia..

Need another laugh...There are import taxes/fees owed to Canada on bringing in a foreign built floating LNG liquefaction facility...And you guessed it..Altagas refuses to pay the tax,,Here are two sources confirming just that...Here is the quote from
David Harris, AltaGas Ltd. - President   (dated October 29th/2015)

________

 "We continue to work with our partners at the DCL consortium to progress our LNG export plans pending resolution of the import duty on the barge."

 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/edited-transcript-ala-earnings-conference-031726485.html

_____

 And double confirmed in the below Financial Post article dated November 2/2015

_______

On an earnings call last Thursday, management at Calgary-based AltaGas Ltd. — another FLNG project proponent — said they expect a decision in November(2015) on how their company’s Chinese-built floating project would be taxed when it’s imported into Canada.

 That project, called Douglas Channel LNG, is widely considered one of the first projects likely to be built on the West Coast and is also tapping into an existing natural gas distribution system
 http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/steelhead-lng-vs-the-salish-sea-underwater-pipeline-must-be-negotiated-before-financing-can-be-secured?__lsa=7fc2-1733
_______________

How many jobs will the Douglas Channel 100% foreign built and barged to British Columbia create Rich Coleman?...30,000 jobs, 20,000 jobs?.....How about 30...

But those are small facilities, what about Petronas's Pacific North West LNG proposal...Our domestic media keep using the $dollar figure $36 billion for that project...Yet everyone knows the estimated cost for that proposal is $11.4 billion....Surely that project will be built in British Columbia if it goes ahead with a positive FID...No, it will not be built in British Columbia either....And our domestic media...Vaughn Palmer..Les Leyne..Michael Smyth..Tom Fletcher, every single British Columbia legislative reporters and columnists and all of Post Media's newspapers know that too..

Yet they don`t report it...They cling to a fictional $36 billion dollar number and nary report that the entire facility will be manufactured in Asia...

Only one writer ever told the truth about Petronas's PNW LNG project....
_________

Petronas wants engineering work for B.C. LNG venture to be shifted offshore

BRENT JANG

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Dec. 04 2014, 5:49 PM EST
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 04 2014, 6:11 PM EST

Petronas plans to push contractors to shift more engineering work for a proposed B.C. liquefied natural gas venture to lower-cost centres offshore as the Malaysian energy giant squeezes suppliers.

Of the total $11.4-billion in estimated construction costs for the Petronas-led Pacific NorthWest LNG export terminal at Lelu Island, there would be $8-billion worth of imported goods and services spread over a five-year period.

 It is in that international component where Petronas hopes to find the bulk of cost savings


 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/petronas-pushes-offshore-work-for-british-columbia-lng-venture/article21960284/


_______________

$8 billion dollars worth of modules and mainframes on a $11.4 billion dollar project all being imported into British Columbia from Asia,,,

And guess what....Petronas is asking to have all import taxes waived goodbye...As in Petronas is refusing to pay...

And I guarantee this...If and when Petronas is granted their import tax waiver...That $8 billion dollars worth of imported modules and mainframes will suddenly balloon in cost to $20 billion dollars worth of imported mainframes and modules....And you guessed it, as reported near exclusively by The Straight Goods....All those Australian LNG plants that went over budget by 50%...80% or in the case of Chevron's Gorgon Plant..100%....There is a deliberate game of political bribes and inflated build costs with the energy giants getting kickback money....Why would they do that you ask?...

Because these energy giants can write off their build costs,....meaning the taxpayer pays double the money back to the company...

Christy Clark`s LNG Fantasy Reality Check

  http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/05/christy-clarks-lng-fantasy-reality-check.html


Are you ready for this shocker????..This is what's coming to British Columbia through the LNG energy fraudsters...The BC Liberals enshrined this scam into law,,

__________

Chevron paid only $248 tax on $1.7b profit, Senate tax inquiry told

 Chevron Australia's US parent company paid income tax of only $248 last year despite earning an estimated $1.73 billion profit on interest charges to its Gorgon LNG development, documents filed with the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance show.

Chevron Australia Petroleum Company, incorporated in Delaware, charged its subsidiary Chevron Australia $1.8 billion in 2014, more than 25 times the interest cost it pays to external lenders, on $36.5 billion of debt.

None of this profit appears to have been taxable in the US, with Chevron APC paying less than $US200 a year tax for the last decade, documents submitted to the tax inquiry by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) show.

Chevron Australia has confirmed the Australian Tax Office is auditing its funding arrangements on the $US54 billion ($76 billion) Greater Gorgon LNG development, after the Federal Court last month confirmed penalty assessments on an earlier tax-free funding scheme by the group.


 Read more: http://www.afr.com/business/energy/gas/chevron-gorgon-company-paid-only-248-tax-on-17-bn-profit-senate-tax-inquiry-told-20151108-gktu7s#ixzz3yoJ92B87

Follow us: @FinancialReview on Twitter | financialreview on Facebook

______________ 

Need more...It's not just Chevron....

____________

Chevron, ExxonMobil & Shell and the $3 billion Gorgon tax two-step

Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell are headed for a showdown with the Tax Office over tax-free profits of up to $3 billion a year.

Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell are facing a showdown with the Tax Office over tax-free profits of up to $3 billion a year they are making from the huge Gorgon project, even before they have shipped the first gas.
The key to understanding this ongoing battle over the $US54 billion ($73 billion) project lies in its long and colourful history. Its origins date back 14 years, when Chevron Corporation announced a takeover of rival Texaco.
In any corporate mega-deal, behind the billion-dollar headlines and bullish forecasts from the chief executive, the mergers and acquisition team is busy working out just how much tax the new, bigger company is going to save.
So it was only a matter of time before the Chevron finance team implementing the $US45 billion Texaco takeover turned its mind to the Australian earnings......

Chevron and Texaco's Australian arms would be merged into a single holding company. This was an opportunity to introduce a little more debt, Chevron execs noted in office memos. It would reduce Chevron Australia's taxable income.

Ongoing confrontation

What followed has set the stage for the ongoing confrontation between the Tax Office and one of the world's largest LNG projects, developed by Chevron (47.3 per cent), ExxonMobil (25 per cent) and Shell (25 per cent).

Back then, the result of all the office memos was that in mid-2003, Chevron Australia set up a subsidiary in the US called Chevron Finance Corporation (CFC). Within weeks, CFC had raised $US2.45 billion from issuing commercial paper, with an interest rate set at or below the London Interbank Offer Rate (known as Libor) for the US dollar.

Over the next five years, that would work out as an average annual interest rate of 1.2 per cent.

CFC immediately on-loaned the $US2.45 billion ($A3.7 billion) to its parent, Chevron Australia, but not on the same terms. The new interest rate would be based instead on the Australian-dollar Libor rate, which was around 5 per cent.

More mark-ups

If that mark-up was not enough, CFC imposed a further mark-up of 4.14 per cent on top of this. The result was that in the next four years Chevron Australia was paying its subsidiary interest of between 8.8 per cent and 10.5 per cent.

For CFC, the profit this produced was a form of arbitrage, and it proved a nice little earner. And there was a pleasing twist.
For US tax purposes, CFC was owned by Chevron Australia, so it was a foreign company that didn't pay US tax.

Chevron Australia paid the interest to CFC, which paid out the 1.2 per cent due to the banks, and the rest was profit. CFC shipped this profit straight back to Chevron Australia as dividends – which in Australia were US earnings, so the profit was not taxable here either.

Read more: http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/chevron-exxonmobil--shell-and-the-3-billion-gorgon-tax-twostep-20150814-gizijk#ixzz3yoMTVrSm
Follow us: @FinancialReview on Twitter | financialreview on Facebook

_______________

But...Surely Petronas wouldn`t bribe public officials and inflate LNG build costs?

Actually yes...Price rigging, over-billing, inflated build costs, and bribing politicians is rampant among the big energy majors.

Tax avoidance is the name of the game with these companies...And we wonder why Alberta is broke?

__________

SBM Offshore settles with Brazilian court in Petrobras scandal

In December, Chabas and Hepkema appeared on a list of former Petrobras executives, sales agents and SBM Offshore executives who may be prosecuted in Brazil in relation to the scandal, in which executives from the Brazilian state energy company received bribes in exchange for work contracts.

State prosecutors say that, from 2004, certain Petrobras officials colluded with a cartel of companies to overcharge the oil company for construction and service work. Petrobras’ confederates were rewarded with bribes, much of which was allegedly shared with Brazilian politicians.

  http://splash247.com/sbm-offshore-settles-with-brazilian-court-in-petronas-scandal/

_______________

Hang onto your wallets BCers...

If LNG gets a foothold here.....British Columbia will be net losers and go deeper in debt..

Isn't about time John Horgan and the BC NDP remembered what Loyal Opposition Means...And perhaps even acted like the loyal opposition?

Had to ask

 

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Another Reason Why British Columbia's LNG Fantasy is Over Before it Even Started, Clean Green Renewable Energy/Technology Will Be Cheaper Than Gas

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20151018-solar-and-wind-power-surge-as-drilling-and-mining-falter.ece

_____________

Northern Ireland is watching as the cost of wind energy falls

Wind energy may soon be less expensive than conventional forms of power in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Renewable Industry Group suggests that onshore wind projects could soon produce less expensive electrical power than new gas projects taking form in the region. By 2020, wind energy is expected to become a leading power source for Northern Ireland, which will allow it to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. This may also help Northern Ireland save money on energy expenditures in the future.

Industry group calls for more support to be placed in the wind sector

According to the Northern Ireland Renewable Industry Group, wind energy has been able to grow less expensive due to supportive energy policies. The United Kingdom has been supporting wind energy relatively aggressively in recent years, hoping that this and other forms of clean power will help it become more environmentally friendly. In 2015, wind power alone satisfied 20% of Northern Ireland’s energy needs. As such, government officials are calling for more support for clean power, ensuring that wind projects continue to receive the support they need.


http://energy.einnews.com/article/308728484/DTvR_OCLDsGGjMRA
______________

Sumitomo Corporation and The Japan Steel Works Enter into Joint-Venture with Gerdau to Manufacture and Sell Wind Power Products

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2016

NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sumitomo Corporation ("Sumitomo") together with The Japan Steel Works ("JSW") announced today their partnership with Gerdau to manufacture and sell wind power generation forged products under the joint-venture.  Gerdau is the largest long steel manufacturer in Brazil. Production of these forged parts is expected to begin in 2017.

http://energy.einnews.com/article/308726729/uh_w6yMDH-USIrQJ


________________

And more....Big wind power news out of Iowa......

________________

http://energy.einnews.com/article/308712438/x82ONMGIyaOkyO7H

_________________

Need more.....

______________

POWERCHINA starts preparing investment in alternative energy of Azerbaijan

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The State Agency for Alternative & Renewable Energy of Azerbaijan (ABOEMDA) has received a delegation of company POWERCHINA.
According to the Agency, its chairman Akim Badalov praised Company’s initiative to invest in development of alternative energy in Azerbaijan, stating that such projects already exist and are able to bring fast profit. Chinese company’s reps are ready for their joint implementation.
"In this regard, the POWERCHINA experts have already started discussing a prospective plan with Azerbaijan Alternative Energy LLC (Azalternativenerji), got acquainted with photovoltaic cells plant AZGÜNTEX, Gobustan experimental polygon and a solar farm on Pirallahi settlement," the Agency said.

http://energy.einnews.com/article/308702855/EX36SBjcbMWecRkF

___________


The renewable-energy boom is here. Trillions of dollars will be invested over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That's according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040. 

Here are six massive shifts coming soon to power markets near you:

1. Solar Prices Keep Crashing

The price of solar power will continue to fall, until it becomes the cheapest form of power in a rapidly expanding number of national markets. By 2026, utility-scale solar will be competitive for the majority of the world, according to BNEF. The lifetime cost of a photovoltaic solar-power plant will drop by almost half over the next 25 years, even as the prices of fossil fuels creep higher.

Solar power will eventually get so cheap that it will outcompete new fossil-fuel plants and even start to supplant some existing coal and gas plants, potentially stranding billions in fossil-fuel infrastructure. The industrial age was built on coal. The next 25 years will be the end of its dominance. 

2. Solar Billions Become Solar Trillions.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/markets/the-way-humans-get-electricity-is-about-to-change-forever/ar-AAbZhP2?ocid=iehp

_____________


Whether or not an LNG terminal gets built in British Columbia matters not...The promises by Christy Clark, Rich Coleman and all BC Liberals have fallen away..There will be no retiring BC's debt...There will never be a prosperity fund created with LNG revenues, there will be no elimination of the British Columbia sales tax through LNG terminals, and as for Christy Clark and Rich Coleman's 100,000 LNG jobs claim(an outrageous lie)  whether there is three..five or even seven LNG terminals, employment per LNG terminal is a mere 200 to 300 employees...and it doesn`t matter how one multiplies, speculates or spins...There is barebones minimal employment generated by LNG...At present in British Columbia, the LNG industry..The oil industry and mining industry combined total a mere 0.4% of BC's total employment...

Despite the LNG cheerleading from hack scribbler Michael Smyth.

Despite the thin gruel LNG articles offered up by Vaughn Palmer and Les Leyne....The LNG game has changed, it won`t be a bridge fuel, not even close...With China going full-bore nuclear and renewable energy....Japan stepping up wind power energy...and many other countries going renewable energy...By 2020 renewable energy will be cheaper than natural gas...So who will be buying LNG....NO ONE!...

British Columbia's pathetic media need to stop cheerleading LNG...I mean cmon..If the BC Liberal advertised LNG job numbers were true, but they aren`t....If the Christy Clark LNG revenue blatherings were true..But they aren`t, not even close...If LNG was a clean fuel, but it isn`t..LNG once all the upstream and liquefaction emissions, once all the methane/fugitive leakage emissions are accounted for LNG is no cleaner than thermal coal...

In other words.....The Christy Clark BC Liberals sold the British Columbia voters during the 2013 election a Bill of Goods..A sham, a fraud, a deliberately orchestrated con...

By the time British Columbia sees a dime of money from Petronas we won`t have any natural gas left...

And...The most shocking thing about the BC Liberal LNG scam is how our mainstream media promotes the codswallop...    

Nuff said..


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide OPen

Canada: The Colonial Curse- Part III ....The New, Global Battle For Democracies

                          
                       
Canada, The Colonial Curse.....Part III

The New, Global Battle For Democracies


Written by Robin Mathews   January 27, 2016



The convergence and integration of political forces formerly called “The Left” and “The Right” has been assisted by huge private corporate interests.  We can, now, abandon the terms “Left” and “Right” as obsolete.  We are in a new world.

  
The fight, now, is between the demand for genuine Democratic representation in the use of wealth and power against its opposite - disguised government by “the One Per Cent”, by giant global corporations, by cliques of concentrated wealth and influence – call those forces what you wish – using people, raw materials, science, the environment, military forces (and governments) in order to concentrate wealth in fewer and fewer hands and to assure the security of a global imperial power with unlimited ambitions.

British Columbia’s erasure (except in name) of its ‘Social Democratic’, ‘Left’ political party is simply a local, visible manifestation of the larger condition.  That began with the fall of the Soviet Union and the break-up of its “empire” (1989).


The Way It Was



For seventy years (until 1989) the presence of a major world power sympathetic to  “communism”, “socialism” – made possible (elsewhere in the world) forms of government that would limit, highly regulate, or even erase private corporate activity.  The Soviet Union not only had announced a new way … but it supported anti-capitalist, anti-NATO, anti-U.S. political formulations all over the world.

Across the world, private corporate forces and the governments that backed them (even in the U.S.A.) had to permit “democratic” (“socialistic”?) forms to exist and even flourish: powerful trade unions; genuinely capitalist-limiting governments; progressive taxation; health-care for all; old age security for all; public education for all; also, in many countries, public broadcasting … and what in Canada are called “Crown Corporations” – enterprises owned by the State and operated to serve the best interests of the whole population – with the profit-motive a secondary concern.
The disappearance of the Soviet Union released the enormous energies of giant private enterprise operations in close harmony with the government of the U.S.A., together seeking to dominate globally and to erase the force of democratic will in communities.



The New Battle



One of the structures that stood in their way had made possible, in many countries, a genuine power of what we now may call “democratic” forces (forces wanting wealth generation publicly examinable and wealth responsibly shared throughout communities).  So-called “free enterprise, private corporate forces”, on the other hand, wanted liberty to exploit all avenues of possible wealth generation without public examination or responsibility.


And so organizations and Parties in opposition to private enterprise/U.S domination were attacked as “Left” (the terrible children of Wicked and Oppressive Communism in Soviet Russia).  They were advertised as repressive of free choice, inefficient, bureaucratic, destructive of innovation, ignorant of the workings of the economy, unable, even, to balance a national budget….
In Canada something was clearly amiss with the arrival to the prime ministership of Brian Mulroney (1984-1993).   With him Canada announced its love-affair with the Far Right [with, in other words, the anti-democratic, corporate forces working for political dominance]… represented then by the Thatcher and Reagan governments.  Mulroney pushed through the first ‘Free Trade Agreement’ with the U.S.A. He slipped out of the Airbus Bribery Scandal by the skin of his teeth and is still seriously believed by many to have been known as “lyin Brian” for the best of reasons.


But what was also amiss – much less noticed – concerns the integration of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in political Canada.  Instead of going back into the trenches with the NDP troops and fighting to build a powerful national Party, iconic New Democrats Stephen Lewis and Ed Broadbent both accepted plush appointments from Brian Mulroney – who should have been both personally and politically objectionable to them.  He clearly knew what he was doing.  Embrace them. Keep them busy. Watch a core democratic opposition shrivel … watch – one might say - the Left becoming the Right. (In B.C., labour leader Jack Munro helped Socred premier Bill Bennett disable the union movement; and Ujjal Dosanjh moved toward the Liberal Party while occupying the office of NDP premier in B.C.)
How much ‘the Democratic forces’ took seriously the attacks upon them we can’t say.  We can say they no longer had behind them a powerful, major “Socialist State”, however despotic, at work in the world.  Integrating the Left into the Right, British Labour prime minister Tony Blair (1997-2007) joined George W. Bush in the infamous, falsely motivated, and brutal invasion of Iraq.  Was Blair driven by greed, lust for power, desire for fame … or did he in some twisted and malevolent way believe what he claimed - that the records of an ancient civilization had to be destroyed and millions murdered … in order to remove the kind of despotic leader that Blair’s government supported in other parts of the world? 



The New Fake Democrats


Across the Western World leaders of Tony Blair’s stripe offer themselves as icons of democratic values while supporting the huge movement by U.S. power and gigantic private corporations to corner the wealth of the world - through “Free Trade”, warfare, the impoverishment of (especially indigenous) populations, NATO, trade sanctions, oppressive banking and investment structures, relentless propaganda and ‘disinformation’ - and almost secret economic treaties. 

But all is not lost. 


More and more of the world’s people are seeing the true face of present barbarity and injustice.  A significant number of Canadians finally saw the neo-liberal, neo-fascist character of the Conservative (“democratic”) government led by Stephen Harper. More and more people – across the West – are seeing the anti-democratic, oppressive face of major structures in the European Union; the imperial expansionist role of NATO (and the U.S.A.); the increasing irresponsibility of large corporate employers; the oppressive intention of most major contemporary “trade” agreements; and the false face of many so-called democratic governments.


An organized “Ninety-Nine Per Cent”, waking up, getting serious, can fairly easily retake the democratic powers usurped by “The One Per Cent”. But that means creating new organizations,  new Parties/new policies that cannot be co-opted by present so-called ‘democratic’ in-groups holding power and the co-operating ‘democratic’ parties in ‘Opposition’ to them – serving, essentially, the same masters. Let the action begin….


Written by Robin Mathews



____________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Kinder Morgan Pipeline Hearings With the NEB...A Godamn Sick Joke, The Sick Joke Is On The People and Environment of British Columbia

Watch the video...Courtesy of YouTube.....

Elizabeth May.....I would personally like to thank you...

You..you Elizabeth May have more courage, big brassy feminine balls, a real voice for the people, the little people who are ignored by corporations and especially ignored by the scandalous BC Liberal Government...

You Miss May speak in clear concise terms, factual, accurate....compelling...Not the inane blathering we in British Columbia have to endure on a regular basis coming from the mouth of Christy Clark...

And that Elizabeth May, is so refreshing....Thanks again!


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

It Looks Almost Certain That Petronas Will Defer Their British Columbia Prince Rupert LNG Project(PNW LNG) Well Into The Future

Malaysia’s Petronas to Slash $11.4 Billion in Capital, Operating Expenses

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia’s state-oil firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas, is planning to slash as much as 50 billion ringgit ($11.4 billion) in capital and operating expenditure over the next four years, according to an internal memo sent to staff by its chief financial officer.

The plan comes as the continuing rout in oil prices has hurt major oil companies world-wide, with the price of Brent crude tumbling to $28 a barrel on Friday. The slide could spell a further drop in Petronas’s revenue and earnings as some domestic and international projects may become unprofitable. .....

Petronas is the Malaysian government’s biggest source of revenue, covering as much as one third of the annual budget—even after cuts in subsidies and the introduction of new taxes to diversify sources of income. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose current budget was based on a $48 price for Brent crude, will table amendments next week to the government’s spending plans.

“Moving ahead, we will go through another round of capex (capital expenditure) and opex (operating expenditure) to target cuts up to 50 billion ringgit over the next four years,” Petronas chief executive Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said in an internal memo Monday to staff. “This means that we are going to have to defer some of our projects.”
A Petronas spokesman said the company is preparing a statement in response to The Wall Street Journal’s request for comment.

Petronas, Malaysia’s only Fortune 500 company, didn’t specify in the memo which projects would be affected. Some major projects include the $16 billion refining and petrochemical complex in the southern Johor state, a $28 billion Canada natural-gas export project and the construction of two floating LNG projects in South Korea.

Petronas has reacted quickly on the first sign of sliding crude-oil prices by expediting cash generation and cost-efficiency initiatives. In 2015, the company began to review and rebid some of its engineering, procurement and construction contracts, as well as rephase some of its petrochemical projects.

“But we have come to the point where these actions are not enough to counter the impact brought on by rapidly declining oil prices,” Mr. Wan Zulkiflee said in the memo, adding that the company still sees no sign of recovery in crude-oil prices.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/malaysias-petronas-to-slash-11-4-billion-in-capital-operating-expenses-1453175548
_____________

I can`t say I'm surprised...You readers of The Straight Goods were privy to this information last year...

I told you readers exactly that in the below August 21st/2015  posting...

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2015/08/british-columbia-and-lngs-last-gaspa.html


Here is exactly what The Straight Goods said on August 21st/2015..and I quote..


"Petronas`s proposed Prince Rupert project is about to be cancelled, I suspect that`s why the political forces that be, the BC Liberal Government and a sold-out compliant BC Media ran guns a blazing with the Steelhead LNG proposal...What a waste of spin on a project so uneconomical, never going to happen...With green technology running over fossil fuels, with a world glut of LNG, with oil prices in the tank, with China`s economy just starting a 10 year economic slowdown, maybe even recession...

With Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Russia, China all busy constructing natural gas direct pipelines to Asia, to Japan, to Pakistan, tonnes of natural gas not needing expensive liquefaction facilities on one end and regasification terminals on the other..

Now with Japan for domestic financial reasons proceeding with nuclear restarts..

LNG export industry is the new poster boy for fools rush in..

Lastly...Steelhead LNG is nothing but noise, no financial institution is going to bankroll that operation on slim margins, in an already saturated market, with LNG use on the decline, with Japan about to slash its LNG use, with China starting a longterm slowdown, with oil and energy stocks in the tank..

The time is ripe for the BC Liberals to present their plan B to pay off the massive $140 billion they added to BC`s debt..

I won`t hold my breath."

_______________

Here is That Straight Goods Special Edition Posting in it`s entirety...

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2015/08/british-columbia-and-lngs-last-gaspa.html


British Columbia LNG Industry, The Last Gas(P)....A Straight Goods Special (updated, January 1st 2016)

 Story after story slowly drips out....BC`s LNG industry is,.....as reported almost exclusively by The Straight Goods ....Kaput, on life support, nothing but fumes wafting about...Also, what is very alarming is the deafening silnce from BC`s legislative media, where is Vaughn Palmer,...Michael Smyth..Where are you hiding Tom Fletcher...Where are your rose coloured LNG success stories....Where are they Tom Fletcher...

The Straight Goods...Norm Farrell and Rafe Mair....That`s it, ...The number 1..number 2 and number 3 reporting entities that tells the real truth on BC LNG...


This one from the Globe and Mail...Petronas project is almost dead..(linked directly below)

http://t.co/dPj7y9UDdr

 Financial Post finally got around to reading this posting in The Straight Goods, they have confirmed my research....Better late than never....I don`t expect BC`s domestic media to indulge, they`re too busy polishing Christy Clark`s cowboy boots..

 http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/window-of-opportunity-for-new-lng-projects-is-gone-because-of-supply-glut-consultancy-says?__lsa=2d00-d796

Of course, you can always read the original below....Cheers

(The below was originally posted August 21st/2015) ..updated January 1st 2016.....Kiss Japan goodbye as a buyer of BC LNG..The updated section is further down the below posting.....Grant G


British Columbia LNG Industry, The Last Gas(P)......A Straight Goods Special




Written by Grant G


"A fool and their money soon part ways".....

Seems to me that every time devastating news on the world LNG front rears its head out comes a British Columbia made LNG spin story, yesterday was no different, articles and newscasts came out blazing, ...The proponent,...Steelhead LNG

Steelhead`s proposal, a floating LNG operation near Mill Bay on Vancouver Island and a $30 billion dollar LNG liquefaction plant in Port Alberni..

 http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Floating+plant+proposed+Saanich+Inlet/11305428/story.html

This proposal will never happen, never be built, a foolish pipedream, ...Steelhead LNG is not an energy company, they have no assets, they own no LNG facilities, they own no upstream drill properties, Steelhead LNG is a group of people, including BC Liberal Geoff Plant and some other people with expertise in the energy game, but to be clear they have no financial means to back up their silly proposal..

I feel bad for Vancouver Island First Nations who have drank the LNG koolaid...

Steelhead LNG proposes a pipeline from northeast British Columbia to our southern B.C. coastline, from there another pipeline on the bottom of the Georgia Straight, from there a pipeline to cross Vancouver Island to BC`s wild west coast, (Sarita Bay)...In Sarita Bay Steelhead LNG proposes building a $30 billion dollar liquefaction plant, ..Thus having massive LNG tankers traversing the wind-swept Alberni canal, a waterway that is winding, very narrow, where winds whip up to 100 miles per hour on a regular basis, winds that come out of nowhere, regardless of the weather, the Port Alberni canal is a natural wind tunnel, winds race through the canal without a cloud in the sky, winds in the canal are thermal dynamic driven...The canal is also full of fishing vessels, both sport and commercial, the canal is also a tourist destination with fishing lodges and camp-sites from end to end...

This project will never happen, for two reason, the first being the risk to tourism, to salmon, to life itself, the canal is too small and too windy to ever have that kind of operation approved..

The second reason why the project will never happen is money, Steelhead has no financial means and no bank or money lender will ever sanction such an expense on an industry gone/going bust.

Breaking News...Japan has restarted their first nuclear plant(Sendai #1) ..Japan is also on pace to restart 11 more nuclear plants in the next year...

Remember this during BC`s 2013 election ...Christy Clark said this about LNG and I quote..

"British Columbia can receive five to six times the price for BC LNG in Japan"

"British Columbia will create hundreds of thousands of high-paying LNG jobs"

"British Columbia will create a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund"

"British Columbia through LNG will retire our provincial debt, pay off all crown debt, eliminate bridge tolls, British Columbia could even eliminate our provincial sales tax" 
_______

This section updated January 1st 2016...Japan is ramping up their nuclear restarts, so...Don`t look to Asia, as in Japan to buy any B.C. LNG...Nuclear power has NO GHG emissions...

Read this all you LNG spindoctors....And, it`s not just Japan ramping up nuclear power, South Korea is ramping up nuclear too...China has 50 nuclear plants under construction as I write this, however, for now let`s peruse Japan`s latest strides towards restarting the nuclear power grid..

Japan Nuclear Update

Sendai 1 and 2 Generated 1.3 Million MWh in November

Dec. 17, 2015–Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co. generated a combined 1,346,924 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity at its Sendai 1 and 2 reactors in November, the Federation of Electric Power Cos. of Japan (FEPC) said Dec. 11.

FEPC said Japan’s nuclear generating capacity factor for November was 4.4 percent, up from 2.7 in October, 2.2 in September and 0.9 in August. The latest generating figure means that Kyushu operated its two 890-megawatt pressurized water reactors at 105 percent capacity on average in November. Sendai 1 and 2 began full commercial operations Sept. 10 and Nov. 17.

Takahama Restart Gets Local Approval

Dec. 10, 2015–Kansai Electric Power Co. received approval from the town of Takahama on Dec. 3 for the restart of its Takahama 3 and 4 reactors, a local government official said. Kansai Electric also needs approval from Fukui Prefecture to resume operations of the reactors.



Kansai Electric said Nov. 25 that it expects the restart of Takahama 3 and 4 to be delayed to late January and late February 2016, because of a delay in its preparations for final on-site checks by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.


Kansai Electric also is waiting for Fukui District Court to decide on its appeal against an injunction preventing the restart. A court hearing ended Nov. 13.

 

Takahama Restart Delayed by a Month

Dec. 3, 2015—Kansai Electric Power Co. said Nov. 25 it expects the restart of its Takahama 3 and 4 reactors to be delayed by one month, to late January and late February 2016.


Kansai EPC said the postponement is due to a delay in its preparations for final on-site checks to be conducted by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority. The company also is awaiting a court decision following a Nov. 13 hearing on its appeal to lift an April injunction preventing the restart.


Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai 1 and 2, the first Japanese power reactors to restart, resumed normal operations in September and November. All 41 other operable reactors in the country are shut pending confirmation they meet NRA safety requirements, obtain permission from local authorities and complete required pre-operational inspections.


The NRA on Nov. 18 granted full 40-year operating licenses for Takahama 3 and 4 and for Sendai 2. Under Japanese regulations, nuclear power plant operators receive a 40-year operating license, subject to a review of the operator’s maintenance plan at the 30-year mark. All three reactors are now licensed to operate until 2025.


Meanwhile, Kansai EPC filed an application Nov. 26 for a 20-year license renewal for Mihama 3, the first reactor to request a total 60 years of operation. NRA inspections required for the application included age-related assessments, ultrasonic testing of the reactor pressure vessel’s base metal and welds, and confirmation of the concrete containment’s strength, and found “no abnormality.”

Sendai 2 Begins Commercial Operations

Nov. 19, 2015—Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s 846-megawatt Sendai 2 pressurized water reactor in Kagoshima prefecture has attained full commercial operation. The reactor is the second reactor to restart in the country since the introduction of post-Fukushima regulatory standards. Power generation began last month, and operators have been gradually increasing output and carrying out tests.


The electricity output from Sendai 1 and 2 in October was about 840,000 megawatt-hours, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan. Japan’s nuclear generating capacity factor in October was 2.7 percent, up from 2.2 percent in September.


The rest of Japan’s 43 operable reactors are shut pending confirmation by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority that they meet post-Fukushima safety requirements. On Nov. 18, NRA commissioners approved 10-year life extensions for Sendai 2 and Kansai EPC’s Takahama 3 and 4, both of which are undergoing pre-operational inspections prior to restart.

JAPC Files for Examination of Tsuruga 2

Nov. 12, 2015—Japan Atomic Power Co. has filed for the Nuclear Regulation Authority to examine its 1,100-megawatt Tsuruga 2 pressurized water reactor for compatibility with post-Fukushima regulatory standards. NRA earlier approved an evaluation report by its expert panel concluding that a fault zone beneath Tsuruga 2 was active. JAPC will have to convince NRA to overturn that evaluation if the reactor is to pass the compatibility examination, without which an early restart of the reactor is unlikely.



Various Japanese power companies have filed with NRA to restart 26 Japanese reactors, five of which have shown they comply with the new standards.

 

Sendai 2 Attains Full Power Operations

Nov. 5, 2015—Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co. expects to begin commercial operation of its 890-megawatt Sendai 2 nuclear power reactor as early as Nov. 17, once the Nuclear Regulatory Authority completes final checks. The reactor started running at full capacity Nov. 1.


Sister plant Sendai 1 returned to regular commercial operations Sept. 10. Kyushu EPC said the two reactors’ return to commercial operation will enable it to cut monthly losses of $99 million, returning the company to profitability this fiscal year.

Shikoku EPC to File for Ikata 3 Restart Oct. 30

Nov. 5, 2015—Japan’s Shikoku Electric Power Co. will file with the NRA a document on tornado impact countermeasures for its 890-megawatt Ikata 3 nuclear reactor that could move it closer to restarting.




The tornado measures are the last issue needed to complete Ikata 3’s engineering work program. NRA’s approval of the engineering program will allow Shikoku EPC to submit an application for pre-operational inspections, the last regulatory requirement prior to restart. Local authorities approved the restart Oct. 26.

Takahama Engineering Work to Be Completed February

Nov. 5, 2015—Completion of safety engineering work at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s 870-megawatt Takahama 3 and 4 reactors will be delayed past the original December deadline until February 2016.


Kansai EPC also hopes the Nuclear Regulation Authority will simultaneously complete its fifth and final set of pre-operational inspections at the two units by then. The inspections began at the two reactors Aug. 17 and Oct. 21.

Ikata 3 Restart Gets Final Local Approvals

Oct. 29, 2015—The governor of Ehime Prefecture, Tokihiro Nakamura, has approved the restart of Shikoku Electric Power Co.'s Ikata 3 nuclear reactor. The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said the restart is scheduled for early 2016. Local authorities from the town of Ikata already have approved the restart and all procedures to obtain agreements from local communities have been completed.




In July the 846-megawatt pressurized water reactor cleared examinations to confirm its compatibility with new post-Fukushima regulatory safety standards imposed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Shikoku EPC will file with NRA by Oct. 30 a plan for tornado countermeasures, the last document required before it applies for pre-operational inspections.



http://www.nei.org/News-Media/News/Japan-Nuclear-Update



______________





Christy Clark said all those things and more, including Christy Clark saying this, and I quote...

"We can sell British Columbia LNG to japan for five to six times the North American price" snip

Christy Clark, Rich Coleman and other LNG spindoctors are too stupid to realize why Japan is returning to nuclear power, because of money, profitability, in order to compete with other countries in manufacturing/heavy industry...Japan was not going to sit there and do nothing, Japan was not prepared to be held hostage by big energy companies and mouthy governments..Christy Clark literally told our Japanese neighbours that British Columbia was going to get rich off gouging them..Christy Clark, the mouth that roared empty words....Pretty safe to say now that Japan won`t need a lick of BC LNG...And who can forget what the painted lady Pamela Martin said about LNG..!



Christy Clark`s communication director Pamela Martin stated, and tweeted to British Columbia`s public, and I quote..



"What would you do with a $trillion Dollars"

Where to even begin, there is so much bad news out there for British Columbia`s LNG industry..

Najib Razak, Malaysia`s prime minister and Petronas head is in survival mode, the proposed Petronas Prince Rupert project has been put on the back-burner, in fact I and many others believe the project is about to be officially cancelled altogether...Yes Petronas has some contracted obligations to deliver LNG in the future, many BC LNG spindoctors ( Brad Zubyk, Resources Works, BCLNGA) and others have blathered about Petronas and the LNG they were contracted to deliver by 2019...

Petronas has solved that problem with this acquisition..

______________

Sarawak Shell Berhad, a unit of Shell, has handed over its 50 percent stake of MLNG Dua to Malaysia’s Petronas.

Previously, MLNG Dua was operated by Shell via a production sharing contract signed with Petronas in 1993.
With this handover, Petronas subsidiaries PCSB and EPMV now own 90 percent and 10 percent equity respectively as PSC operators. The previous PSC expired August 20, Petronas said in a statement on Friday.
“Petronas is committed to ensure that there will be no interruption to the supply and demand of gas and achieve stability in the operations of MLNG Dua,” said Petronas Senior VP Upstream Malaysia, Mohd Anuar Taib.

 http://www.lngworldnews.com/petronas-takes-over-shells-stake-in-mlng-dua/

___________


Petronas has just secured supply, with that acquisition they can meet their deliverable contracts without their Prince Rupert LNG liquefaction facility......An acquisition and major news story that BC`s lamestream media ignored....They were too busy spinning Steelhead LNG`s uneconomical and unattainable pie in the sky proposal.

The world LNG market today, in 2015 is already in a structural glut, and that`s before the 60 million tonnes of new capacity comes online in the next four years, the world LNG market is in a structural glut before Japan restarted their first nuclear plant, with 11 more nuclear plants slated to come online in the next year, and I remind you that at present Japan is the largest by volume consumer of LNG..NOT FOR LONG..

The news gets worse, existing LNG operations have seen their profits plunge year over year and anyone paying attention to world economies, China is in recession, manufacturing in free-fall, energy stocks are low, oil hovering at $40 dollars per barrel and forecasted to reach lows not seen in decades, possibly dropping as low as $20 dollars per barrel, expert forecasters are predicting oil to remain low for at least another decade..

___

Australia’s Santos, operator of the GLNG project, reported a half-year net profit of $37 million after tax, 82 per cent lower than the previous first half, reflecting significantly lower oil prices and a higher exploration expense.

The half-year results were also highlighted by improvements in production and significant cost reductions across the business, Santos said in its results report on Monday.
Strong operational performance – particularly from PNG LNG and Darwin LNG – saw Santos record production growth of 13 per cent compared to last year. However, the lower realised oil prices resulted in sales revenue declining by 15 per cent.

http://www.lngworldnews.com/santos-profit-plunges-82-percent/

_________

Japan, even before they restarted their first nuclear plant have seen LNG imports decline precipitously ...
And as for South Korea...Here`s more bad news for British Columbia`s LNG aspirations..
______


"Yoo Sang-Hee told Platts that high prices of LNG compared to coal and nuclear push the demand for the liquefied natural gas further down in the power generation sector as more gas-fired power plants remain idle.

Operating rates of gas-fired power plants went from 61.3% in 2013 to 50.8% in 2014, and as Yoo said, it is expected that these rates will slip to 23.7% by 2019 and even lower to 16.8% in 2022."

 http://www.lngworldnews.com/lng-being-pushed-out-of-south-koreas-power-generation-market/

   /

Kogas of South Korea, the world’s largest corporate buyer of LNG, said its sales volume totaled 1.90 million mt in July, a drop of 20 percent as compared to the same month last year.

Gas sales into the power sector were at 1.01 million mt, down 26.8 percent when compared to July in 2014, Kogas said in a filling to the stock exchange.
The company’s city gas sales dropped 10.6 percent on year to 887,000 mt.
Kogas imported 16.54 million mt of LNG in the first half of 2015, down 17.1 percent as compared to the previous year.

 http://www.lngworldnews.com/kogas-july-sales-down-20-pct/

__________
   
Kiss Japan as a B.C. LNG buying market goodbye...you can add South Korea to the not interested in BC LNG camp too....

And what about China?.....Well, China has lost nothing but money on Canadian energy projects and now China is getting the hell out of Canada..
___________

"After a string of bad investments, China Investment Corp. (CIC) has shut down its Toronto office and is opening a new one in New York, part of a quiet retreat from Canadian natural resources by China’s state-controlled entities......

CIC was founded in 2007 by the Chinese government to help the country earn a higher return on its pool of foreign exchange reserves, worth US$3.44 trillion at the end of November. CIC manages US$747 billion......

Some of that money flowed into Canada at the height of the commodity boom. CIC committed US$500 million in 2009 to SouthGobi Resources Ltd., the Vancouver-based company with operations in Mongolia, then invested $1.7 billion in Teck Resources Ltd...

All Canadian positions became big money losers. In some cases CIC is now the largest shareholder after others bailed. The move to New York may signal CIC will cut its Canadian holdings"

http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/china-investment-corp-retreats-from-canada-after-mining-energy-investments-sour?__lsa=13a3-635e

__________

I don`t believe China will be too interested in losing more money on unprofitable LNG export terminals

The bad news on the LNG front is staggering, the prospect for British Columbia to get any LNG projects is very, very grim indeed...Petronas, the company the BC Liberals bent over backwards for and sold out British Columbia to is in a world of hurt...Firstly...Petronas`s LNG sales are in steep decline,....And even the head honchos at Petronas see no relief in the near to long term..

________

Malaysia’s oil and gas giant Petronas said it has sold 8 percent less LNG in the second quarter of 2015, as compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The company’s LNG sales were at 6.92 million tonnes, down by 0.6 million tonnes on year due to lower production at its LNG complex in Bintulu, Petronas said on Friday.
In the first half of this year, Petronas sold 14.96 million tonnes of LNG, down from 15.15 million tonnes a year ago.


Petronas President and Group CEO Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said that the company does not foresee a reprieve from the low oil prices in the near future
“I do not expect our cash flow from operations this year to meet our CAPEX and dividend commitments. This means that we will have to persevere through with more austerity measures, and will have to draw on our cash reserves,” he said.

 http://www.lngworldnews.com/petronas-lng-sales-drop-8-pct/

___________

The news for Petronas`s Najib Razak and the people of Malaysia gets even worse....Petronas which supplies the government of Malaysia upwards of 30% to 40% of their national budget...Petronas will not be able to meet their dividend obligations to Malaysia...Meaning the entire population of Malaysia are about to feel the pain, cutbacks and worse..

___________

Petronas cuts dividend payment to RM26b in 2015

Summary of the news presented in point form:

• Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), is trimming the national oil firm’s dividend paid to the government this year, in view of weaker earnings.
• Revenue dropped 21% to RM66.2 billion for 1QFY15, from RM84 billion a year ago.
• Oil firm has allocated a full year dividend of RM26 billion for the government, as compared to the RM29 billion last year. In 2013, Petronas paid a dividend of RM27 billion.
• Petronas saw a 39% decline in its net profit to RM11.4 billion for the first financial quarter ended March 31 (1QFY15), compared with RM18.8 billion in the previous corresponding period. 
•  

_________

Christy Clark and Rich Coleman blather about a generational opportunity with LNG, all the promised riches, a $trillion dollars was hyped a few short years ago and now those numbers slashed by a factor of 20 today, and now Petronas can`t even honour commitments to their own country...

The LNG industry is oversupplied, in structural over-supply with 60 million tonnes of capacity under construction coming online in the next few years, even American brownfield LNG projects are in doubt as to profitability...A brownfield operation is where most of the LNG infrastructure was already in place, in the USA a decade ago $billions were spent to gear up for LNG imports, regasification plants and pipeline networks were built, but along came the fracking revolution and the USA found themselve awash in natural gas, those facilities have been, are being converted to LNG export facilities...In British Columbia LNG would be a greenfield industry, meaning nothing is in place, no existing facilities available for conversion, no pipeline networks, everything has to be built from scratch, also, BC`s gas supplies are hundreds of miles and a rugged mountain range away from the coastline....Making BC LNG very expensive indeed, not counting First Nations needing equity deals and protecting a very diverse rich river and salmon environment...Nothing easy, not without destroying our forever sustainable wild salmon..

PIRA, they have recently come out with data implying the USA`s brownfield LNG exports plants are going to struggle to make financial returns...

___________

YC-based PIRA Energy Group believes that the return of Japanese nuclear capacity, surging Asian LNG supply, and the weakness of crude prices does not bode well for Atlantic Basin flows to Asia.

The broader compression of Asian spot prices at the high end against Henry Hub at the low end strongly implies shorter haul LNG trade and lower prices, PIRA said in its report.

  
The North American natural gas supply curve continues to look flatter. PIRA still believes that there will be an uptick in price as the US passes through its demand surge and LNG and industrial projects start up, but the extent of the inflation adjusted run-up post-2020 has been reduced as the resource base expands and productivity improves.
PIRA also sees an increasing concern that U.S. LNG projects will find it difficult to recover full costs plus a return in an increasingly competitive market.

 http://www.lngworldnews.com/pira-u-s-lng-projects-could-struggle-to-recover-costs/

_____________

Let me be perfectly clear, if USA brownfield LNG export projects are now looking very iffy as to profitability and return on investment than British Columbia greenfield proposals are money sinkholes that will never see a profit...Unless British Columbia gives Petronas free gas, tax free and royalty free the proposed projects aren`t viable and what is even more scary...The LNG obsessed BC Liberal Government is ramming forward with a $10 billion dollar plus Site C dam project to supply electricity for an LNG industry that ISN`T going to happen!..

Over $10 billion dollars flushed down the toilet, $10 billion plus taxpayer dollars flushed away...Petronas can`t even pay themselves let alone pay British Columbia..

This information has been available here at The Straight Goods for some time, only now are the world energy experts and forecasters coming to terms with this new LNG reality, unfortunately Christy Clark and the BC Liberals put all their eggs in one basket and our domestic media sold out the people of British Columbia...Here a simple blogger with little means, no research staff, no money, a one person operation has put the Vancouver Sun, The Province, Global BC, CTV, CKNW, Vaughn Palmer, Michael Smyth, Les Leyne, Keith Baldrey and others to shame....

Those entities have the resources and the information but unfortunately they have been corrupted, sold out to the BC Liberals and to big industry..

I have saved the best for last...From Bloomberg....Nothing new that hasn`t already been reported here for several years, but confirmation..

________________

Gas Golden Age Fades as Supply Boom Meets Japan Nuclear Rebirth

The golden age of natural gas lost some of its luster this month.

Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of the fuel in liquid form, restarted a nuclear reactor on the island of Kyushu Aug. 11, re-embracing atomic power to shrink energy-import costs.

 A week later, a production milestone was marked at Santos Ltd.’s Curtis Island plant in Australia, a new liquefied natural gas project that’s part of a record annual capacity increase.

Japan’s return to nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and China’s economic slowdown are undermining the demand that prompted the International Energy Agency to envision a golden age four years ago. Companies including Chevron Corp. and BG Group Plc were counting on Asia’s consumption as they sank hundreds of billions of dollars into new supply. A glut will cap LNG prices for years, according to Citigroup Inc.

“Japan is going to do very well out of this,” Christopher Haines, a senior oil and gas analyst at BMI Research in London, said by phone Aug. 20. “Australia will probably be hit the hardest, there is a lot of new capacity coming online.”

The fossil-fuel import bill for Japan, once Asia’s biggest nuclear power producer, surged after Fukushima as the nation turned to other energy sources including LNG to plug the gap. This contributed to four years of trade deficits that hit a record 12.8 trillion yen ($103 billion) in 2014.

Sendai Restart

Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s No. 1 reactor at the Sendai facility is the first to come back online under new post-Fukushima safety rules as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to revive the atomic fleet. While Kyushu plans to resume operations at a second unit in October, the timing on further restarts is uncertain due to tougher procedures set by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, legal challenges and public opposition.

Utilities have applied to resume operations at 25 of Japan’s 43 reactors. Next year, 11 units may restart, according to Polina Diyachkina, an analyst who has covered the nation’s power providers for three years at Macquarie Group Ltd.

Australian Supply

Demand for LNG will slow as the nuclear restarts continue, Citigroup analysts including Ed Morse said in an Aug. 12 research note. The price of the fuel shipped to northeast Asia has slipped about 60 percent since climbing to a record $19.70 per million British thermal units in February 2014.
“There will be a glut of spot cargoes which will put further downward price pressure to spot prices” as Australia starts up 13 LNG units over the next three years, David Hewitt, the co-head of global oil and gas equity research at Credit Suisse Group AG, said by e-mail. “We would not be surprised to see some very low headline spot price deals in the next few years.”
LNG producers are forecast to add 50 million metric tons of new capacity next year, the largest single annual increase in history and equivalent to a fifth of current global demand, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

$150 Billion

The bulk of the supply is coming from Australia, where companies including ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Inpex Corp. are spending more than $150 billion on ventures due to start in the next two years.
On Curtis Island in Queensland, the $18.5 billion Santos development sent gas into the first processing unit of its LNG plant, a key step on the path toward starting production, the company said Aug. 18. There are two other projects on the island, including Origin Energy’s A$24.7 billion gas-export venture with ConocoPhillips.

The next wave of exports will come from North America, where only six of the roughly 40 proposals so far will be built, according to a Bernstein report last month. Those facilities -- from Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass project in Louisiana to Dominion Resources Inc.’s Cove Point project in Maryland -- are scheduled to construct more than 60 million tons of capacity by 2021, according to the researcher.

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-21/gas-golden-age-fades-as-supply-boom-meets-japan-nuclear-rebirth

____

Meanwhile, British Columbia doesn`t have a single final investment decision, not one shovel in the ground, all that Australian and American capacity coming online, already under construction, 60 million tonnes annually coming online from the USA alone....

Australia has downgraded government revenue forecasts from existing LNG operations...

The news get even worse, green technology, solar energy and roof-top applications will soon see electricity produced cheaper than gas or coal....clean green technology..

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2015/07/british-columbias-lng-balloon-goes-pop.html

From an earlier Straight Goods posting..

__________


 The renewable-energy boom is here. Trillions of dollars will be invested over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That's according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040. 

Here are six massive shifts coming soon to power markets near you:

1. Solar Prices Keep Crashing

The price of solar power will continue to fall, until it becomes the cheapest form of power in a rapidly expanding number of national markets. By 2026, utility-scale solar will be competitive for the majority of the world, according to BNEF. The lifetime cost of a photovoltaic solar-power plant will drop by almost half over the next 25 years, even as the prices of fossil fuels creep higher.

Solar power will eventually get so cheap that it will outcompete new fossil-fuel plants and even start to supplant some existing coal and gas plants, potentially stranding billions in fossil-fuel infrastructure. The industrial age was built on coal. The next 25 years will be the end of its dominance. 

2. Solar Billions Become Solar Trillions

With solar power so cheap, investments will surge. Expect $3.7 trillion in solar investments between now and 2040, according to BNEF. Solar alone will account for more than a third of new power capacity worldwide. Here's how that looks on a chart, with solar appropriately dressed in yellow and fossil fuels in pernicious gray:

© BNEF Expect $3.7 trillion in solar investments between now and 2040, according to BNEF. Solar alone will account for more than a third of new power capacity worldwide.

3. The Revolution Will Be Decentralized

The biggest solar revolution will take place on rooftops. High electricity prices and cheap residential battery storage will make small-scale rooftop solar ever more attractive, driving a 17-fold increase in installations. By 2040, rooftop solar will be cheaper than electricity from the grid in every major economy, and almost 13 percent of electricity worldwide will be generated from small-scale solar systems.

4. Global Demand Slows

Yes, the world is inundated with mobile phones, flat screen TVs, and air conditioners. But growth in demand for electricity is slowing. The reason: efficiency. To cram huge amounts of processing power into pocket-sized gadgets, engineers have had to focus on how to keep those gadgets from overheating. That's meant huge advances in energy efficiency. Switching to an LED light bulb, for example, can reduce electricity consumption by more than 80 percent. 

So even as people rise from poverty to middle class faster than ever, BNEF predicts that global electricity consumption will remain relatively flat. In the next 25 years, global demand will grow about 1.8 percent a year, compared with 3 percent a year from 1990 to 2012. In wealthy OECD countries, power demand will actually decline.  

5. Natural Gas Burns Briefly

Natural gas won't become the oft-idealized "bridge fuel" that transitions the world from coal to renewable energy, according to BNEF. The U.S. fracking boom will help bring global prices down some, but few countries outside the U.S. will replace coal plants with natural gas. Instead, developing countries will often opt for some combination of coal, gas, and renewables.  

Even in the fracking-rich U.S., wind power will be cheaper than building new gas plants by 2023, and utility-scale solar will be cheaper than gas by 2036.

Fossil fuels aren't going to suddenly disappear. They'll retain a 44 percent share of total electricity generation in 2040 (down from two thirds today), much of which will come from legacy plants that are cheaper to run than shut down.

 http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/markets/the-way-humans-get-electricity-is-about-to-change-forever/ar-AAbZhP2?ocid=iehp

______________

Petronas`s proposed Prince Rupert project is about to be cancelled, I suspect that`s why the political forces that be, the BC Liberal Government and a sold-out compliant BC Media ran guns a blazing with the Steelhead LNG proposal...What a waste of spin on a project so uneconomical, never going to happen...With green technology running over fossil fuels, with a world glut of LNG, with oil prices in the tank, with China`s economy just starting a 10 year economic slowdown, maybe even recession...

With Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Russia, China all busy constructing natural gas direct pipelines to Asia, to Japan, to Pakistan, tonnes of natural gas not needing expensive liquefaction facilities on one end and regasification terminals on the other..

Now with Japan for domestic financial reasons proceeding with nuclear restarts..

LNG export industry is the new poster boy for fools rush in..

Lastly...Steelhead LNG is nothing but noise, no financial institution is going to bankroll that operation on slim margins, in an already saturated market, with LNG use on the decline, with Japan about to slash its LNG use, with China starting a longterm slowdown, with oil and energy stocks in the tank..

The time is ripe for the BC Liberals to present their plan B to pay off the massive $140 billion they added to BC`s debt..

I won`t hold my breath.

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open