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.
No deal with Alcoa has cost Adelaide Brighton 31% of its value and threatened its WA lime business that is warring with its neighbours in suburban Perth.
Shell has followed BP in thinking its oil and gas assets are now worth much less in a post-COVID more climate-aware world and Prelude LNG is a big contributor to the value destruction.
Delays in offshore oil and gas maintenance after COVID-19 workforce cuts worries safety regulator NOPSEMA and unions, who have pointed to Inpex's Ichthys LNG project as a concern.
Santos is now the biggest supplier of gas to WA and the future may depend on the Perth Basin after the State's almost four decades of reliance on Australia's first LNG plant.
Peter Coleman's challenges: an ageing plant, high cost gas, partner churn and global forces making the LNG game tougher than anyone envisaged a few years ago.
If Woodside's argument that a reef's environmental benefit outweighs 400 tonnes of plastic in the ocean wins over NOPSEMA then leaving everything on the seabed could become the default option for Australia's oil and gas players.
As wind and solar displaces coal the South West of WA will have ample generation, according to a 10-year look ahead, with the growth of electric vehicles being the big unknown.
Droughts could be twice as long and severe in the greenest parts of South West WA from 2050 onwards if greenhouse gas emissions are not controlled, and some WA farms may become unviable.
Woodside's Pluto LNG plant has delivered less that one per cent of its gas to WA due to a 2006 WA Government deal that appeared generous then and looks feeble now.
