Scoop.co.nz - Geothermal Energy Progress

SMH - Global warming effects tackled in state plan

The State Government is ramping up its preparations for the effects of global warming by forming a new state-wide plan, which assumes some local communities will be hit hard by rising sea levels, bigger bushfires and heatwaves. The new "climate action plan" merges new measures with existing strategies and will be launched this morning by the Minister for Climate Change and Environment, Verity Firth.

The Government will target local areas, such as low-lying coastal suburbs, bringing in emergency services personnel to develop plans that will try to minimise the effects of wild weather and king tides. ... Building industry design standards may be changed in fire and flood-prone areas, and a review of global warming's health and economic effects on the different NSW regions will begin in the coming weeks. ...

The action plan will be based on data produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the CSIRO, released last year, which showed that Sydney and other parts of the state's coastline were likely to be more severely affected by global warming than previously thought. The United Nations projected sea level rises of between 18 and 79 centimetres this century, and a CSIRO study published in November said another 12 centimetres on top of that could be expected because of local conditions off the NSW coast.

The Australian - Singapore looks at Woodside's Browse LNG

SINGAPORE may become the third foundation multi-billion-dollar customer for Woodside's planned Browse Basin liquefied natural gas development. Chief executive Don Voelte announced in Singapore yesterday that the company was on a short list to supply the island republic's first LNG receiving terminal.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority said in January five companies had been shortlisted to aggregate gas supplies for the terminal but it declined to disclose the participants. The aggregator, expected to be selected in the next four months, will be given an exclusive licence to import LNG and to sell regassified LNG. It is expected that the contract volume will begin at about 1.2 million tonnes of LNG a year, increasing to 3million tonnes.

The $US720 million ($770.6 million) receiving terminal, being constructed by Singapore Power subsidiary PowerGas, is expected to be completed in 2012. The authority says about 80 per cent of power generation needs in Singapore are met by the 6 million tonnes of natural gas imported by pipeline each year from Malaysia and Indonesia.

In 2006, Singapore announced it would import LNG to diversify its sources of energy and to meet rising demand. If Woodside succeeds with its Singapore tender, the republic will be become the third foundation customer of the Browse development, after PetroChina and Taiwan's China Petroleum Company.

Stuff.co.nz - The North Sea of the south

New Zealand may be the southern hemisphere's answer to North Sea oil, according to a leading geophysicist, with the potential for finding billions more barrels of oil off the coast. The New Zealand Petroleum conference kicks off in Auckland today, a few days after world oil prices hit a high of US$106 a barrel. The Kiwi exploration sector is also buzzing over the better-than-expected offshore Taranaki Tui oilfield, which is producing about 45,000 barrels a day. About 2 billion barrels have been discovered.

But GNS exploration geophysicist Chris Uruski says many more billions of barrels may yet be found off New Zealand's coast, possibly in water as deep as 2000 metres. Big sedimentary basins Deepwater Taranaki and the new frontier area of the Raukumara Basin off the East Cape may yield oil, while the Great South Basin off the bottom of the South Island is already being explored.

The high price of oil should have a positive effect on exploration, which so far had barely scratched the surface in New Zealand, Mr Uruski said. A survey of Deepwater Taranaki showed three large prospects that could each hold up to 1 billion barrels of oil, though the prospects were well offshore and therefore expensive to explore. "One [the Romney structure] could hold 3 billion barrels. The potential is quite large, but realising that potential is another matter." Romney is about 120 kilometres offshore in deep water, though even at 2000m drilling is possible.

Scoop.co.nz - Duynhoven: NZ Petroleum Conference 2008

Trading Markets - GulfX exploration agreement with Torrens Energy

The Australian - Uranium glows for Ambani

The Australian - China to pay $600m for 60pc of AED Oil

Peak Energy - Biofuels 'risk global starvation'

IHT - Chevron to spend US$3.1 billion to develop Gulf of Thailand gas field

SMH - Snowy Hydro to buy assets if privatisation goes ahead

SMH - Bondi Bus beachhoppers triumph

SMH - At last, we take a stand against the dark side

Peak Energy - Short Takes

Peak Energy - LEDs - The Future Of Lighting

Peak Energy - Renewables 2007: Perceptions and Realities