ALP Broome Branch rejects gas hub

'The ALP Broome Branch does not support the location of a gas processing hub in the Kimberley and surrounding waters.' 16th December 2008

Gas information forum - 27th/28th March

The Shire has endorsed a $30,000 budget line to support and organise a community forum on the Gas issue. This forum will invite all groups including, the Chamber, the Airport, Woodside and other Resource companies, Dept of Resources and non Government Agencies such as environmental groups.
The idea of the forum is to provide the community with a one stop forum to get a range of information on the issue and to have those questions answered.
The forum will be held on 27/28 March and all environmental groups will be invited to participate.
Hopefully this forum will be an opportunity for the people of Broome to hear all sides of the issue.

Other LNG gas options are being considered.

"Given the high level of environmental concern about gas processing developments on the Kimberley coastline, the various Browse Basin (companies) are increasingly considering
either floating development options (like Royal Dutch Shell and Nexus energy) or a tie
back to exisisting infrastructure.

Woodside will decide by the end of June whether to construct a pipeline to link its Browse Basin fields to existing liquefied natural gas plants on the Burrup Peninsula.

Should the WA Govenment proposed Kimberley LNG hub concept fail then (other
companies) would be expected to follow the lead by Inpex and pipe any Browse
Basin gas to Darwin." Source: "The West Australian" Jan 26th 2009

Will Woodside shelve Prices Point?

Interesting that Woodside have blamed souring market conditions for shelving two natural gas projects recently. Natural gas futures in New York have dropped 57% in the past 6 months and crude oil prices have plunged 74%. Woodside Natural Gas - a US unit of Perth based Woodside Petroleum had suspended its proposed natural gas import project for the LA region. "We must acknowledge the impact of the current market ...... we are withdrawing our application for the time being," Woodside Natural Gas president said. Meanwhile, BG group, Britain's third largest natural gas producer has cancelled plans to build a $750 million power plant in Australia. Market analysts are predicting a poor year for Woodside during 2009 due to difficulty in raising capital and the low price of fossil fuels.
Does this mean anything for the development of Prices Point - we can only wait and see.