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Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm has spoken candidly about the miner’s pledge to reduce emissions, saying in hindsight he regrets setting a target for as soon as 2025. Mr Stausholm backed in the big miner’s commitment to playing its part in addressing climate change while taking questions about Rio’s plans to decarbonise at an event this morning, but said it had to be ‘realistic on what it takes’.

The federal government’s tax take is poised to hit its highest level in 15 years thanks to soaring resource sector profits and inflation pushing workers into higher tax brackets. Veteran budget watcher Chris Richardson expects the May 9 budget to reveal tax revenue as a share of the economy will reach 23.8 per cent next financial year, which will be the highest level of collections since 2008.

“Australia’s oil and gas industry is already delivering increasing returns to governments as part of a broad economic contribution that will almost triple to $16 billion in direct taxation receipts this financial year while employing 80,000 workers and spending $45 billion on Australian goods and services this year,” chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.

Takeover activity in the Perth Basin gas sector in the past few months has included Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting buying up explorer Warrego Energy for $438 million, while Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources has acquired Norwest Energy. Earlier, in 2018, Japan’s Mitsui snapped up AWE, giving it 50 per cent of Waitsia. He said the tightening of the WA domestic gas market presents one of the most under-appreciated market shifts in Australia’s energy landscape in the last year, and is still flying below the radar of many investors.

Mr Iustini said engineering design teams were as busy as they had ever been, which was a signal for what’s coming next. “We see 2024 as being a really busy year for execution and construction of the big projects,” he said.
Likewise, Hancock Prospecting and its subsidiaries, Atlas Iron and Roy Hill Holdings, are focused on growth. The group’s latest project was the McPhee Creek mine, budgeted to cost $605 million. Through its recently formed HanRoy entity, the group is evaluating several growth options, including the Mulga Downs mine, with production capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum, and the Hardey mine.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has hailed Shingo Yamagami as an “outstanding” diplomat, saying the Japanese ambassador has alerted Australia to prevalent dangers and risks. “The risk that we will no longer be a source of energy security to countries like Japan if we don’t continue to develop our coal and gas resources and the danger of Beijing’s aggression towards its neighbours and indeed the wider world,” he told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “In this sense, Yamagami-san has been one of the really outstanding diplomats.”

24 April 2023.

Concerns about an investment freeze have forced the government to backflip over its plan to impose a “reasonable price” limit on east coast gas producers, but it has failed to restore industry confidence for new ventures. The decision grants automatic exemptions from the cap to smaller producers and may unlock paused investments – including Senex Energy’s $1 billion Atlas project in Queensland backed by billionaire Gina Rinehart. “The policy guidelines as they stand are not going to foster supply investment in most instances, especially from the key supply areas in Bass Strait and Queensland.” Still, industrial energy users described the proposal as “a welcome step in the right direction”, saying it struck a better balance of power in gas supply negotiations between gas producers and buyers.

The outgoing and outspoken Japanese ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, has warned in a departure interview that “sover- eign risk” is now an active concern among Japan’s corporates and energy companies which fear the reliability of Australia as an energy supplier. “There shouldn’t be any mis- understanding as to the depths of concern held by Japanese companies because on repeated occasions those concerns have been conveyed to the Australian government.” the ambassador told The Australian.

Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety data released today revealed a new annual sales record for the state of $246 billion, a $15 billion increase on last year’s record. “There was 855 million tonnes of iron ore sold from QA, the highest quantity on record for a single calendar or financial year,” DMIRS reported. “It was supported by record shipments from Hancock Prospecting and Fortescue Metals Group, as well as a recovery in sales from Rio Tinto’s operations particularly later in the year due to operational improvements and the ramp up of Gudai-Darri.”

WA’s booming resources sector shows no signs of slowing, with new figures revealing sales hit a record $246 billion in 2022 as demand for gas and battery metals offset lower iron ore prices. While sales of the State’s biggest export earner were down $31b on 2021 — when iron ore prices hit a record $US233 a tonne in May before tumbling unexpectedly — the steel-making commodity still generated $126b on record production of 855 million tonnes.