Good Post A, heads will soon begin to turn towards the BCE...

Good Post A, heads will soon begin to turn towards the BCE industry.

I was down in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago , just driving down the roads parallel to the track there's still appears to be a constant backlog of shunting cars bottlenecking into Newcastle port; there is a massive competition on the coal network among mining operators in the region. Xstrata decided about two years ago that it had had enough of the 'wait your turn' which was / still is caused by the big demand on the QR / Aurizon locomotives hence they can't cope with the amount of coal that needs to be pumped out

Xstrata built rail line to cater rails to cater for Mt Owen, Mongoola, Ulan and Bulga, they also bought their own fleet of trains...approximatle 14 million tonnes are drawn out of the hunter area using Xstrata rail; the remaining 70% is hauled as it was before; apperantly it has freed the lines up....a bit; " its still choking" the guy I was talking to spoke about GVK Hancocks proposed line out of the Galilee basin; 500 km worth of line; a new port expansion at Dudgeon Point / Abbott point...it would be massive for Newcastle; the whole region ! The shear volume of coal in there was mind blowing.

BUT the cost of providing the Infrastructure was in the region of $6billion....current coal prices which are sub $100 just wouldn't make the project feasible; they would need price to be somewhere above the $120 mark...his division relies heavily on the Coal industry expansion .....he made comment that it wasn't only the huge construction and opex figures of the rail to port venture , but also some of the emerging technologies down south that could provide cheaper alternatives...

He was a bit frustrated by that; probably frustrated by the movement in technology and the possible provision of cheaper alternatives to black coal..it could all be left in the ground out there in the Galilee and no expansion ....for that I kept my comments and smile to myself.

A couple of weeks ago Aurizon and the GVK Hancock partnership did announce a preliminary agreement to jointly develop project ; the words potentially, the most expensive infrastructure project in the state's history was in the same paragraph. It would create expansion to export 60 million tonnes per year of coal; but the old $120 a tonne figure again raised its head; probably sites up on the mantle piece beside that words 'preliminary'
and very early days.

LV close to coast, Coldry Kcal BCE, clean water.

Desalination projects on their own cost an absolute packet. The Victoria desalination plant cost some $4 billion with a daily operating cost of approx $1.8m per day. Thess lost a figure of around $275m and some scalps on that one...clean Coldry water anyone??


Did you know that Australia is the only country in the world that allows international oil companies to access and export natural gas without prioritising local supply.

It is also the only gas exporting country to experience serious gas shortages and sharply rising prices.

Most of Australia’s gas resources are controlled by the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. Their preference is to conclude multi-billion dollar LNG contracts with a handful of overseas customers, rather than sell to many smaller Australian companies.....they actually can't get the gas out quick enough to fill the orders that have already been place and PAID by overseas companies such as China; trying to pull gas back for the domestic market when even what's still in the ground is already bought, just puts the industry under more presure...that would just drive domestic gas prices up;all the additional required production costs would be beared by the domestic buyer, as China etc has already set its price and bought it.

At current gas prices, a $60-90 / tonne carbon price would be needed to make gas competitive with coal for baseload power generation. The carbon tax will have no impact in shifting energy use from coal to gas and will only drive up energy prices.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Port_of_Hastings_expansion

Proposed following the announcement by Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT) that it would proceed with a feasibility study for its Coldry Project. ECT called for fast track planning of an upgrade of the port facilities at Hastings.

Yes the whole Monash delay is a pain in the butt; I won't make excuses for them; we actually don't and can't really know if the have progressed due to the apple the DPI has rammed in ECTs mouth; although if that $6m pops out within the latest ' window' IMO you will have a fair idea what is going on behind those doors.

The dragging on is frustrating, but for me its an investment rather than a trade; so I'm happy enough waiting on the ALDP program to do its thing

OW