end of the bear bounce friday, page-29

"May be you could enlighten me which ones they are and more importantly how they are going to provide long term employment for the unskilled miners. You don't need many truck drives to pump oil and gas once the field are producing."

PC43, I also know the industry well and yes, it does seem like you are missing something.

Just look to the NW shelf and Darwin alone for the majority of oil/gas work. Think how an $80B spend in projects over the next few years might help Australia's economy through this rough patch?

The fact that the projects are not due to produce until (or at least, will get additional trains until around 2014-2016) means that Australia will be partly supported by a reasonable demand for jobs in trades and engineering, and will require additional alternative jobs to support activity and populations in the towns and cities involved in both onshore and offshore constructuion.

What about the unskilled truck drivers? They might have to get more used to seeing water or a beachside life as they train up to become less-unskilled in other support roles, while we get the projects built in the first place. If job numbers are reduced after the main big projects go into production years from now, then by then, we will hopefully be over the main slowdown elsewhere and have other mining or oil/gas projects to be built. So Australia will be partly saved by a shift from mining to oil/gas focusses.

ps: Gorgon in itself is expected to have a spend in the range of $35-$50 in itself with go ahead slated for later in the year. Ichthys is is an dditional $20-$25B (with FEED awarded in Jan09). The list goes on for smaller slated projects.