WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Chevron intends to have cracked propane vessels fixed and Gorgon LNG back in full production by September as it awaits inspection by the safety regulator.
Chevron's 5-month process to trim its Australian workforce twice as hard as its global cuts will now start the musical chairs of allocating spots in the leaner organisation.
The safety and economic stakes for Gorgon LNG are high as WA Government inspectors soon head to Barrow Island to check on Chevron's cracked pressure vessels.
While the idle Northern Endeavour costs $4 million a month, Government and industry are still talking about how to keep the clean-up bill below a possible $230 million.
Safety regulators knew nothing of cracked pressure vessels at Chevron's Gorgon LNG plant until alerted by media reports and now plan to inspect the equipment themselves.
Thousands of cracks raise questions about the safety of the Gorgon LNG plant and operator Chevron will decide to shutdown or maintain revenue, with the safety regulator on the sidelines.
Cost, climate concerns and delay have killed Woodside's Browse LNG project and now it must negotiate with its old foes, the North West Shelf partners, to ensure Scarborough is developed.
If Western Gas' Equus LNG project does not take off in these tough times neither the small company nor regulator NOPTA have an answer to how making safe the wells is paid for.
WA will be coal-powered for sometime and Synergy is working to ensure its Collie power stations can cope with the new world of intermittent renewable energy.
Hundreds of 7000-year-old Aboriginal artefacts found off the Pilbara coast highlight a new issue for oil and gas to maintain its social license, with Woodside's Scarborough project at the forefront.
