Gas crisis in Western Australia
The gas crisis in Western Australia began on June 3, 2008 when a natural gas pipeline broke on Varanus Island in the state of Western Australia and the gas processing plant on the island was subsequently largely destroyed by a fire and had to be shut down. As a result, a third of the gas volume in Western Australia was missing and led to a gas supply crisis, particularly in the metalworking industry, which only ended in December 2008.
Investments
Since 1996 there have been five gas liquefaction plants on the 83 hectare Varanus Island, which is about 70 km off the coast in the Lowendal Archipelago . The natural gas , which is delivered from the production platforms of the Harriet, East Spar and John Brookes gas fields in the Lowendal archipelago, is used to separate water and, above all, sulfur compounds and carbon dioxide in large-scale industrial plants. The resulting liquefied natural gas is delivered in two submarine pipelines to the mainland, where it is distributed in two pipelines, the Goldfield Gas Pipeline and the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline .
The facilities on the island were approved by the Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969 in Western Australia and the safety and health and safety regulations are subject to the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), in whose area of responsibility the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority , an Australian authority, exercises and controls Reports created.
Oil is also produced to a lesser extent than natural gas in the Lowendal Archipelago.
explosion
When a gas pipeline broke in the transition between coastal waters and the gas liquefaction plant, there was an explosion that ignited the plant and seriously damaged it. Within a very short time, all of the approximately 152 employees on the small island were brought to safety; no one was hurt. The fire destroyed the plant, which was subsequently shut down and this resulted in a 35% drop in the supply of liquefied gas from Western Australia. The operator of the plant, Apache Energy , the Australian subsidiary of the Apache Corporation from Houston , announced that it would take a few months for the plants to come back online.
consequences
Gas delivery
The plants on Varanus Island produce 365 terajoules of liquefied natural gas per day, which is about 6% of the liquefied gas in the entire Australian market. The liquefied gas produced was mainly sold to heavy industry and a small part to electricity producers. The Varanus systems serve more than 20 major industrial customers, including the major international corporations BHP Billiton Ltd. , Rio Tinto Group , Iluka Resources Ltd. , Newmont Mining Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp. For months, the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline took on additional gas deliveries in the southwest of Western Australia to secure industrial production.
Already one day after the explosion, Apache Energy announced that it knew the cause of the explosion and on June 13 the first work began with the dismantling of destroyed plant components. On August 6th, after two months, production started again with a volume of 120 terajoules per day. In mid-October two thirds of the previous capacity flowed, followed by 85% and only in December 2008 100% again.
economy
80 to 90% of Varanus Island's liquefied natural gas is used by industry and the remainder is used for electrical energy. The consequences of the loss of gas supplies mainly affected the energy-intensive Australian metal production of iron, gold and nickel. The companies affected were initially unable to maintain their production figures, but did not shut down any plants because of the gas crisis. They switched to alternative energies, especially diesel and other gas suppliers. This meant more effort and costs. Some companies said they would hold Apache Energy liable if it were found to be responsible for the power failure.
Alternatively, can e-works , which are operated with gas producing and diesel power and although the amount of gas supplies from Varanus Island to gas-fired electricity companies was low for industrial customers fell Muja Power Station , which generated with gas flow . The plant did not go back online until June 23, 2008. An electric plant at Kwinana that generates electricity with coal was shut down and, due to the situation, was put back into operation and went online on July 8, 2008.
An investigation of 301 member companies of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on June 18 came to the conclusion that 601 employees may be affected by the minimized gas supply and that 50% of the interviewed entrepreneurs said that they were affected and 11 said that they were would have ceased operations because of the gas crisis.
Private households were not directly affected by the supply shortage as they were not supplied with gas from Varanus Island. However, the gas crisis led to gas price increases for private households.
politics
The Prime Minister of Western Australia Alan Carpenter said on 8 June that the energy loss by gas from other suppliers and by coal-fired electricity companies, which are switched into the network again, can be compensated. He also called in a television and radio broadcast that private households should reduce their gas consumption so that the industry could be better supplied. Carpenter feared that the gas crisis would deepen and affect business and employment. The Western Australia Trade Union Secretary warned that workers could be made redundant in the mining, timber and food industries, as well as in the service and transportation industries.
On June 18, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Carpenter had set up a gas delivery coordination group with government agencies and industry representatives to resolve the energy crisis and instructed the Royal Australian Navy to deliver diesel to Western Australia from its fleet base on Garden Island to be carried out in the event of supply bottlenecks. He also hired the Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson to control the production and transport of oil and natural gas to solve the crisis.
Investigations
The incident was investigated by three commissions, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) technical commission , one of the Western Australian Senate and one of the Commonwealth of Australia.
The NOPSA came to the conclusion that the rupture of the pipeline was caused by corrosion because there was ineffective anti-corrosion protection, the sacrificial anodes at the rupture site were not optimally maintained and there was a lack of inspection and maintenance in the transition in the coastal area in the dry-wet transition zone .
The Senate Commission and the opposition parties criticized the gas plan for which the West Australian Labor Government was responsible, which, despite gas pipeline breaks in 2006 and spring 2008, did not contain any alternative supply plans for incidents. That commission also announced that the gas crisis had resulted in a loss of AUS $ 2 billion in gross national product for the state of Western Australia . "
The commission of inquiry commissioned by the Commonwealth set itself the task of investigating the relationship between the Department of Industry and Resources and the NOPSA at the gas liquefaction plant on Varanus Island and making it available to the relevant ministries in order to draw conclusions.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Department of Mines and Petroleum (Western Australia): Oil and Gas Review 2008 (PDF; 2.3 MB)
- ↑ Department of Mines and Petroleum (Western Australia): Petroleum Explorer's Guide to Western Australia (PDF; 18.5 MB)
- ↑ National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority: NOPSA's Role in Providing Regulatory Support ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Elizabeth Gosch: WA gas supply cut 30pc by blast at Varanus Island. The Australian dated June 7, 2008 ( Memento of the original dated September 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ explosion impairs Apache gas production. Explosion impairs Apache gas production. The Australian dated June 29, 2008
- ↑ a b Alcoa, Newcrest Lose Gas Supplies After Pipeline Fire on bloomberg.com
- ^ [Background on Varanus Island and the incident. http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/081786_Background2.pdf ] Department of Industry and Resources
- ↑ Apache confident of gas plant repairs Sydney Morning Herold of June 13, 2010
- ^ Power station brought back during WA gas crisis. ABC News (Australia) dated June 23, 2008
- ^ Warwick Stanley: WA gas crisis to hit rest of Australia Warwick Stanley The Age of June 18, 2010
- ^ Carpenter announces action plan for WA gas crisis. ABC News (Australia) dated June 8, 2008
- ↑ Workers affected by gas crisis need more help: unions ABC News of June 16, 2008
- ↑ Emma Rodgers: Gas crisis serious for all Australians: PM ABC News (Australia) June 18, 2008
- ↑ Brendan Nicholson: Rudd warns of WA gas crisis fallout The Age, June 19, 2008
- ↑ Final Report of the Findings of the Investigation into the Pipe Rupture and Fire Incident at Varanus Island on June 3, 2008 National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority of October 10, 2008
- ↑ a b Standing Committee on Economics: Matters relating to the gas explosion at Varanus Island Parliament of Australia on December 3, 2008 ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
