British Columbia`s Long-Proposed LNG Industry Missed The Starting Gun

Meet the new rightwing pro-nuclear leader of Japan Christy Clark...Your worst nightmare come true...

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"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has won a majority in the upper house, exit polls suggest.

His Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner New Komeito were set to get at least 71 of the 121 seats being contested, broadcaster NHK projected.
This would give him control of both houses of parliament for the first time in six years.
Mr Abe said the expected result was an endorsement of his economic reforms, as he seeks to end long-term stagnation.
The deadlock in parliament has been seen as a key factor in Japan's recent "revolving door" of prime ministers.
Official results are not expected until Monday.
But the exit poll suggested Mr Abe's coalition would control 130 seats in the 242-seat upper house. Half the seats were being contested in Sunday's election.
The result is being seen as a vote of confidence in Mr Abe, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo."

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23396234

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Shinzo Abe, a hard rightwing politician, his election victory is bad news for LNG exporters around the world,, and bad news for Christy Clark`s Liberals..

Besides his insistence on printing money ala the USA`s Bernake, ...

Shinzo Abe will fast-track the restarting of Japan`s shuttered nuclear facilities, this is being done for several reasons, firstly Japan wants to reduce its reliance on energy imports, funny how that works, when Japan had the nuclear accident(?) at Fukushima, when they terrified the world and their own populous a precautionary Government moved quick to shut down all the nuclear facilities...That decision even though prudent proved very costly to all those concerned, Japanese utilities lost a lot of money, domestic utility rates spiked for average Japanese people, and Government itself lost $billions of dollars in yearly taxation revenue as utilities went from providing profits and tax dollars to Government to losing money as a result of having to buy high-priced energy imports, those imports were LNG..

I find it rather amusing, instead of energy companies and energy exporting countries coming to the aid of Japan all parties starting licking their chops in anticipation of taking Japan and its people to the proverbial cleaners..

Christy Clark was particularly callous, her blatherings to the world, she bragged that British Columbia was going to make $trillions of dollars from Japan, how we were going to retire our provincial debt, pay off BC Hydro and BC Ferry debt, remove bridge tolls and create a prosperity fund worth $hundreds of billions of dollars, and more, LNG revenue from Japan would allow B.C. to remove our sales tax..A British Columbia future paved with gold and all that money coming from the pockets of the Japanese people..

Is there any doubt what the catalyst was for Shinzo Abe to announce a restarting of their nuclear facilities...There is no doubt, Christy Clark told Japan to be prepared to pay up or sit in the dark shivering..

Shinzo Abe, a hard rightwing politician has vowed to restart and renew their shuttered nuclear industry and strive for energy security, no country likes to get blackmailed, especially to get blackmailed from whom they thought were friends..

My how times change, Ernst and Young in recent days have warned of many risks to LNG exporting countries, ...

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"Supply technology — two areas in particular could impact the

future of LNG: methane hydrates and Floating LNG (FLNG).

Over the long term, methane hydrates could potentially double

the world’s natural gas resources. With a disproportionately

large volume of methane hydrates located near Japan and

Korea, both countries are ramping up R&D activities. 

Successful development could signicantly reduce demand for LNG.

FLNG may in some cases be an attractive, cost-effective

alternative to land-based liquefaction, with potentially lower

development costs, lower environmental impacts and the ability

to monetize remote or smaller gas fields. At present, there are

no operational FLNG facilities — Shell’s Prelude FLNG project,

currently being developed in Australia, is slated to come online

in 2017–2018."

 http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Global_LNG_New_pricing_ahead/$FILE/Global_LNG_New_pricing_ahead_DW0240.pdf

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 And from an earlier Straight Goods post..

"With a shuttered nuclear industry the Japanese Government loses an estimated $10 billion yearly in taxation revenue, energy companies that provide electrical power run at a loss too, residential energy users, who are already the highest priced electrical consumers in the world see power bills spike even higher, thus taking away even more domestic spending power by the consumer, and those spiked electrical bills flow out of country, business and heavy industry relying on electricity see massive spikes in cost too...Japan, like America, like Canada, like every country the world are having difficulty in being competitive with cheap Chinese and Indian made goods as it is,  now with Japan losing all their domestic electrical generating ability that disadvantage becomes unbearable, a deathblow to Japan`s economy , a slow-bleed economic killer, one that Japan can ill-afford to languish in...

There are reports published that confirm that if Japan doesn`t restart its nuclear facilities more than 700,000 Japanese people will be thrown into unemployment lines, 1000`s of those jobs are directly related to the nuclear facilities and surrounding communities, the remaining are employees that industry anticipates letting go as a result of Japan`s  new found cost uncompetitiveness..."

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/07/return-of-mothra-and-godzilla-or-lng-to.html

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So, in a nutshell, in very short order, Japan`s rightwing pro-nuclear leader Shinzo Abe has secured his grip on power, and...

Japan has successfully extracted ocean methane hydrates..

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"TOKYO — Japan said Tuesday that it had extracted gas from offshore deposits of methane hydrate — sometimes called “flammable ice” — a breakthrough that officials and experts said could be a step toward tapping a promising but still little-understood energy source.

The gas, whose extraction from the undersea hydrate reservoir was thought to be a world first, could provide an alternative source of energy to known oil and gas reserves. That could be crucial especially for Japan, which is the world’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas and is engaged in a public debate about whether to resume the country’s heavy reliance on nuclear power.

Experts estimate that the carbon found in gas hydrates worldwide totals at least twice the amount of carbon in all of the earth’s other fossil fuels, making it a potential game-changer for energy-poor countries like Japan. Researchers had already successfully extracted gas from onshore methane hydrate reservoirs, but not from beneath the seabed, where much of the world’s deposits are thought to lie."

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/business/global/japan-says-it-is-first-to-tap-methane-hydrate-deposit.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=offshoredrillingandexploration&adxnnlx=1368810826-qinBavfpmX719FH4mps63Q

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"Last week in Japan new safety regulations for nuclear reactors went into effect, as the government tries to ensure that the nation will never again be rocked by nuclear catastrophe. These regulations provide a path for nuclear power plants to resume operations, and five power companies promptly submitted applications for the restart of 12 reactors, with more applications expected in the coming months.

More than two turbulent years have passed since a tsunami smashed into the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, causing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. During those years, shifting political administrations have offered dramatically different visions of Japan’s energy future. 

Now, with the pronuclear Liberal Democratic Party expected to consolidate its hold on the government in parliamentary elections next week, Japan seems poised to embrace nuclear power once again.

Currently only two of Japan’s 50 functional reactors are in operation; the rest are shut down for safety checks. Utilities have been forced to run coal-, gas-, and oil-fired plants at high capacity to keep Japan’s production lines running and the lights of Tokyo burning bright.

 The nuclear restarts have been championed by Japan’s business and industrial groups, which fear the economic impact of continuing to rely on expensive imported fossil fuels."

 http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/japan-prepares-to-restart-nuclear-plants

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Even China, besides buying up fraccing technology and pursuing their own vast domestic inland supplies of natural shale and coal seam gas they are active in developing gas in the China Sea.

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-china-five-5-billion-dollar-east-china-sea-gas-development-drive/1703795.html


What Christy Clark doesn`t understand, what the energy companies don`t understand..

Countries like Japan and China, they won`t sit back and play victim, these countries have felt repressed by the west for a long long time, any disadvantage these industrious Asian people have, they work like army ants to turn things around..

So, not only are LNG exports to Japan already in decline, the restarting of the nuclear facilities will dash the big dreams of British Columbia, and even Australia....Australia, a country with 7 large LNG facilities coming online in the next 3 years, Australia who has signed supply deals with Japan....

With methane hydrates being developed, with more than ample LNG supply coming online, with Japan turning into a declining market for LNG....

With Australia and Russia ramping up supply, with new floating LNG coming online..With the USA converting already built import LNG facility to export facilities, thus giving them a huge financial edge over British Columbia, with the USA`s Cheniere energy now selling LNG to Asia linked to the North American Henry Hub price...Well

With Rich Coleman and Christy Clark putting all our economic eggs in one basket..

With the BC Liberals stating...

"We are in a race with Australia to develop LNG before the window closes"

Well, we don`t even have a shovel in the ground and the market British Columbia was chasing after and racing to is already gone..

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open