WA Premier Roger Cook's core "Made in WA" election policy will be tested by his use of local content provisions to keep Chevron's WA engineers working in WA.
Big players in the WA resources sector have had a grim time on the share market since US President Donald Trump's nonsensical "Liberation Day" tariff announcement on April 2.
In the seven trading days that have followed, there has been a global crash in share prices, a brief reprieve when many tariffs were delayed for 90 days and then further falls on Friday.
For the big operators in WA, it has been terrible to be Chris Ellison, great to be a gold miner, and varying degrees of pain in between.
The mayhem caused by Trump's tariffs is greater than shown in the chart, as many companies experienced significant slips in their share prices in the nervous days before "Liberation Day".
Chris Ellison's Mineral Resources has fared the worst, with a share price already trashed by governance concerns and a disintegrating road from its new iron project falling a further 28 per cent. Stock in the diversified lithium, iron ore and mining services conglomerate is now down motr tham 50 per cent this year.
Miners of lithium were a mixed bag.
US giant Albemarle - which has stakes in the Greenbushes and Wodgina mines and the Kemerton processing plant, had an enormous 28 per cent drop.
Shareholders in China's Tianqi and locals Pilbara Minerals and IGO suffered much less with drops in the 7 to 11 per cent range.
And while hindsight is an unfair judge, many long-term holders of IGO scrip must now rue its big switch from gold to battery minerals a few years ago.
The share price in US aluminium specialist Alcoa, that sources more than 70 per cet of its bauxite and alumina from WA, has dropped 19 per cent since the tariff announcement and is down 37 per cent this year on the ASX.
The Pittsburgh-based firm was not helped by one Wall Street analyst switching his recommendation from buy to sell, missing the usual intermediary step of a hold.
Bank of America now thinks $US26 is a fair value for a share in Alcoa, less than half the previous target of $58. The price for its US-listed shares is currently $US24 a share.
The next worst-hit miner was South32, which has a diversified portfolio but still sources 68 per cent of its revenue from alumina and aluminium sales.
While Trump loves fossil fuels, the market has thought differently, with major gas players in WA experiencing drops of between 13 and 19 per cent.
With White House-induced global economic uncertainty likely to dampen demand and massive deregulation designed to increase US production, oil and gas prices can only go one way.
Embracing the opportunities of the energy transition and preparing for climate change are too important to be derailed by vested interests.
Less than two weeks into Trump's oscillating tariff moves, China remains the biggest victim with an impost of more than 100 per cent placed on its exports to the US.
Oddly, this has had little effect on the iron ore players so dependent on construction and manufacturing in Australia's biggest trading partner.
The pure iron ore play Fortescue has dropped just two per cent. The two more diversified but still iron ore-dominated multinationals BHP and Rio have had share price drops in just single figures. At times like this, that is almost a win.
Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara, which has ammonia and explosives plants near Karratha, is about even so far. Perhaps because we still need food, and its gas feedstock may be much cheaper for a while.
However, the only unambiguous winners of the current shambles are the gold miners.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016 I have written for The West Australian, The Saturday Paper, RenewEconomy, Michael West, Boiling Cold and WAtoday.
WA's EPA is now restraining growth in carbon emissions from industry but it and State and Federal Governments need to do more to keep the State attractive to increasingly climate-concerned investors.
Peter Milne
