Woodside has ticked all the most important regulatory containers for its $16.5 billion Scarborough liquefied pure fuel project, which means work on Australia’s greatest oil and fuel project in a decade can kick into prime gear.
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Key factors:
- The Scarborough project is predicted to export its first LNG cargo in 2026
- It will emit thousands and thousands of tonnes of carbon
- Analysts say LNG demand is rising in Asia
A spokeswoman for the Perth-based firm mentioned the WA authorities’s approval of a pipeline licence was the final major state and commonwealth approval required for Scarborough.
But whereas the project has cleared its home regulatory hurdles, it has some international points to deal with.
Earlier this week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched a brand new report which mentioned the world wanted to dramatically minimize emissions from fossil gasoline infrastructure to keep away from the catastrophic results of world warming.
It adopted a report by International Energy Age infoncy (IEA) final yr, which referred to as for no extra funding in new oil, fuel and coal tasks if internet zero emissions had been to be achieved by 2050.
The Scarborough project includes piping fuel from the Scarborough fuel fields, about 375 kilometres off the coast of WA, to an expanded Pluto processing facility close to Karratha.
It is predicted to emit thousands and thousands of tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.
But the IPCC report’s modelling confirmed that fuel utilization would have to be decreased by 15 per cent on 2019 ranges to restrict international warming to 2 levels above pre-industrial ranges by 2050.
The report prompted a powerful response from UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who referred to as funding in new fossil gasoline infrastructure “ethical and financial insanity”.
‘Completely the unsuitable path’: climate scientist
Climate scientist Bill Hare, who was the lead creator on a earlier IPCC report, mentioned the report confirmed that there was no room globally for a brand new fuel project like Scarborough.
“Adding extra fuel to the system through Scarborough and different tasks is definitely going backwards as a result of it is really growing emissions, not reducing emissions,” he mentioned.
“In different phrases, it is making the state of affairs worse, it is inflicting long term lock-in of carbon intensive power, it is actually utterly the unsuitable path.”
In a climate plan launched final month, Woodside commited to internet zero emissions by 2050 and a 30 per cent discount by 2030.
It mentioned it might spend $5 billion on low-carbon tasks that included present photo voltaic power tasks and investigating carbon seize and storage.
Wood Mackenzie LNG analyst Daniel Toleman mentioned high-level studies like that by the IEA had been affecting funding and made it more difficult for corporations to develop these tasks.
But he mentioned he believed the demand for LNG would develop, notably in South-East Asia and South Asia, and it might be wanted as a backup for renewable power sources.
“We nonetheless see LNG rising all through each the 2020s, 2030s and nicely into the 2040s,” he mentioned.
Ukraine warfare disrupts provide
The invasion of Ukraine has additionally disrupted LNG tasks in Russia, affecting funding and provide.
Mr Toleman mentioned some LNG tasks below building in Russia had been delayed, together with the Baltic LNG project by the Russian state-owned firm Gazprom.
Other tasks at an earlier stage of improvement had been additionally now in jeopardy.
“They now look unlikely with western corporations pulling out, they are not going to finance these tasks and they also have to be changed by others,” he mentioned.
“But it does take fairly a very long time for LNG tasks to maneuver ahead so ones which can be already going ahead are advantaged.”
Woodside goals to ship its first shipload of liquefied pure fuel processed via Pluto Train 2 to north Asian prospects in 2026.
By this time, Mr Toleman mentioned Scarborough was anticipated to supply about 9 million tonnes of LNG a yr.
