The great aussie land grab

[mr friendly guy]

link

Australia expands its continental shelf
Monday Apr 21 19:52 AEST

Australia has secured a potential oil and gas "bonanza" after netting an extra 2.5 million square kilometres of seabed.

Exploration has already taken place in some of the areas that could potentially deliver the nation billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves and help secure its energy future.

The extension to Australia's territorial jurisdiction stems from the findings of a United Nations commission on the limits of the continental shelf and the ratification of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The decision gives Australia the rights to whatever exists on the seabed in the area, including oil and gas, and biological resources such as micro-organisms that could potentially be used to develop medicines.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said he could not put a figure on the potential oil and gas reserves contained in the areas, but that it was a major boost to Australia's offshore resource potential.

"The truth of the matter is that they have been hardly explored," he said.

"This is potentially a bonanza. We have got unknown capacity up there."

Mr Ferguson said the UN decision means Australia now has jurisdiction over an area of the continental shelf that is almost five times the size of France, 10 times the size of New Zealand and 20 times the size of the United Kingdom.

He said the decision also improves Australia's chances of securing its energy future, and that of other nations.

"As you can appreciate when you sit down and talk to countries such as Japan, Korea, India and China the big issue they want from us is security of supply and that goes to the energy security debate," he said.

"We do need to find another Bass Strait or alternatively develop alternative fuels, such as gas-to-liquids and coal liquids, because the issue of energy security goes squarely to the question of transport fuels."

But the government has again ruled out exploration of the Antarctic mainland and waters around it.

"We have always acknowledged the Antarctic treaty and already have locked in as a nation no minerals exploration in that Antarctic region," Mr Ferguson said.

He also ruled out exploration of McDonald Island, west of Antarctica.

"We've always as a nation basically treated that as off-limits."

Mr Ferguson was unable to put a timeline on when oil companies might begin mining the seabed for oil or gas deposits.

However, some "pre-competitive" exploration has already taken place, revealing the areas included in the extended jurisdiction have the potential to yield some major gas and oil finds.

Geoscience Australia geologist Mark Alcock, who was the project leader for the Law of the Sea and Maritime Boundaries Project, said the Great Australian Bight, Lord Howe Rise, south west of Lord Howe Island, and the Wallaby and Exmouth Plateaus all had mining potential.

"Surveys are being undertaken in the Lord Howe Rise region ... looking at the petroleum prospectivity of the seabed in that area," he said.

"It's one of the areas Geoscience Australia has been looking at for this pre-competitive work ... (and) there are similarities with areas that oil has been found in closer to Australia."

Mr Alcock said that of greenfield areas that had been explored, the Great Australian Bight was considered to be quite "prospective".

"The Great Australian Bight has been looked at to some extent (and) is probably considered a little more prospective than Lord Howe Rise - it's a bit more conventional as a place to find oil," he said.

"There's evidence in particular that there are source rocks in the region, rocks that will produce oil ... it's in fact there's very large pile of sediments and you find oil in these sediments."

He said the Wallaby and Exmouth Plateaus in the west also had potential.

"They're areas that are lying west of the big gas fields that are found in Western Australia. The Exmouth Plateau in particular is considered prospective, obviously because it's a major gas province in the in-shore."

Mr Alcock said it was possible that some of the areas under pre-competitive exportation could go to tender within the next couple of years.

©AAP 2008

As it stands now, we can easily supply our energy needs (ignoring government incompetence and what not - WA I am looking at you), and we export excess energy to other countries. Lets see how this pans out.

[Chris OFarrell]

Pan Australia, ho! Prepare to commence the carpet bombing of NZ!

And Tasmania...I don't think we have anyone on here who still lives there, do we?

[Phantasee]

But what if all that extra territory is dry? What if there is no oil or gas?

[Stuart Mackey]

But what if all that extra territory is dry? What if there is no oil or gas?

There is thought to be large sea bed oil deposits in the southern hemispere, but almost no exploration has been done. NZ, for example is thought to have huge deposits in the Great South Basin after some work done by Hunt petroleum in the late seventies, but it's never been economic to work on it untill very recently.

[Twoyboy]

As it stands now, we can easily supply our energy needs (ignoring government incompetence and what not - WA I am looking at you), and we export excess energy to other countries. Lets see how this pans out.

Fuck you. As soon as we get a government who's not shit scared of Uranium we're seceding from you guys and selling our energy resources to you. No more bludging off of ol' WA then! Our plan of selling off our resources ridiculously cheap is working. China is our bitch, next India and the Middle East. World domination is almost ours! Bwahahahaha!

But what if all that extra territory is dry? What if there is no oil or gas?

From what some geos have told me, that's extremely unlikely. But I don't really understand how they can tell.

[Stark]

Pan Australia, ho! Prepare to commence the carpet bombing of NZ!

And Tasmania...I don't think we have anyone on here who still lives there, do we?

If Australia wasn't run by idiots, it could be in much better regional political shape already. Nah, racism is better, right? I wouldn't expect this to lead to any serious benefits for some considerable time.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Didn't they try that with E. Timor before and there was some diplomatic flare up?

[thejester]

Pan Australia, ho! Prepare to commence the carpet bombing of NZ!

And Tasmania...I don't think we have anyone on here who still lives there, do we?

If Australia wasn't run by idiots, it could be in much better regional political shape already. Nah, racism is better, right? I wouldn't expect this to lead to any serious benefits for some considerable time.

We're in regionally poor shape?

[Stark]

We're in regionally poor shape?

'Could be better' != 'is bad now'.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Didn't they try that with E. Timor before and there was some diplomatic flare up?

Eat Timor is totally a puppet nation of Australia, but don't tell anyone.

[weemadando]

Indeed, why on earth else would we be so committed to pissing off Indonesian and blowing billions of defence dollars if there weren't things TOTALLY worth our while in the Timor Sea?

[thejester]

We're in regionally poor shape?

'Could be better' != 'is bad now'.

'Much better' suggests it, though. What do you think we could improve on?

[Stark]

'Much better' suggests it, though. What do you think we could improve on?

How about not pissing off the Indos and ignoring most of the Pacific unless we want to build an illegal detainment... I mean 'immigration holding area'? Aside from things far away (like UN operations) I can't remember the last time I heard about some foreign policy move that WASN'T going to piss off our neighbours.

And no, sorry, 'could be much better' is a pretty fucking open statement: it could be better. If you want to get your patriotic panties in a twist, that's not my problem. AU foreign policy has been ridiculous since before 'all the way with LBJ'. My point was that expecting AU to take advantage the OP with both hands instead of dilly-dallying until they come up with the stupidest minority-satistfying impotent way possible is perhaps a little optimistic.

However, at least we don't have Downer any more. +5 foreign policy, instantly!

[Stuart Mackey]

'Much better' suggests it, though. What do you think we could improve on?

How about not pissing off the Indos and ignoring most of the Pacific unless we want to build an illegal detainment... I mean 'immigration holding area'? Aside from things far away (like UN operations) I can't remember the last time I heard about some foreign policy move that WASN'T going to piss off our neighbours.

snip

So long as China's influence contunues to spread AU will have a very strong interest in Indo and the Pacific and AU will be forced to take action to counter that.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

So long as China's influence contunues to spread AU will have a very strong interest in Indo and the Pacific and AU will be forced to take action to counter that.

Well, to be honest, Australia doesn't get too involved in the region to be regarded of anything worth beyond buying goods and so forth. It is going to hard to counter China, who is willing to invest in a lot of infrastructure developments and other things which any regional country is more than happy to accept (excepting some).

Unless Australia wishes to revamp its foreign policy, it is never ever going to counter Chinese influence beyond piggy bagging on the United States, which shows on and off interest in the region.

[mr friendly guy]

As it stands now, we can easily supply our energy needs (ignoring government incompetence and what not - WA I am looking at you), and we export excess energy to other countries. Lets see how this pans out.

Fuck you. As soon as we get a government who's not shit scared of Uranium we're seceding from you guys and selling our energy resources to you. No more bludging off of ol' WA then! Our plan of selling off our resources ridiculously cheap is working. China is our bitch, next India and the Middle East. World domination is almost ours! Bwahahahaha!

You do realise I am also from WA right? Granted I grew up in Adelaide so I support the Crows and rub it in Eagles supporters when I can, but still WA is home.

[thejester]

'Much better' suggests it, though. What do you think we could improve on?

How about not pissing off the Indos

The single biggest constant in Australian policy in the Asia-Pacific, perhaps alongside good relations with Japan, has been to bend over backwards to keep Indonesia happy - despite it being, until recently, a brutal dictatorship with a list of human rights offences that would make good bedtime reading for a month. Whitlam gave the nod to East Timor, Hawke and Keating went along merrily with it, and Howard was forced by sheer weight of public opinion to intervene in 1999.

You know what the latest Indonesian outrage was about? The fact we gave refugees from Irian Jaya visas because the Immigration Department - known for its love of people rocking up on boats on our northern coastline - determined they were legitimate refugees. Maybe you're right, our relations could be better, but only by letting the Indonesians sodomize us.

and ignoring most of the Pacific unless we want to build an illegal detainment... I mean 'immigration holding area'? Aside from things far away (like UN operations) I can't remember the last time I heard about some foreign policy move that WASN'T going to piss off our neighbours.

Ignore most of the Pacific? We are their biggest aid donor - 175.8 million AU, with Japan at 164 million and no-one else even close. Given that that means that countries like the Cook Islands are recieving something like a third again their annual GDP in aid, I would suggest we are very far from ignoring them.

And no, sorry, 'could be much better' is a pretty fucking open statement: it could be better. If you want to get your patriotic panties in a twist, that's not my problem. AU foreign policy has been ridiculous since before 'all the way with LBJ'. My point was that expecting AU to take advantage the OP with both hands instead of dilly-dallying until they come up with the stupidest minority-satistfying impotent way possible is perhaps a little optimistic.

You have such a piss poor understanding of Australian foreign policy that it's embarrassing. I thought cultural cringe was dead, but I guess I was wrong.

[tim31]

Pan Australia, ho! Prepare to commence the carpet bombing of NZ!

And Tasmania...I don't think we have anyone on here who still lives there, do we?

HI CHRIS

I can relocate for the good of the nation though.