Australia's PWCS completes $1.5 bil expansion at Newcastle coal terminals - Coal | Platts News Article & Story ...PWCS has set out its position on take-or-pay contracts for shipment capacity in its coal terminals, after market sources speculated that some of its coal producer customers would benefit from a relaxation of payment terms in a market of falling coal prices.While making clear that the company does not comment on commercial discussions with its customers, PWCS gave some general comment on its position in a statement issued in response to questions. ...Coal producers' take-or-pay contracts for port capacity in PWCS' terminals last for 10 years on average, PWCS said. PWCS executes an annual nomination and allocation process through which producers get the opportunity to provide the company with their demands for capacity," it said. "This may include requests for reductions in capacity, which PWCS can under certain circumstances accept. Such voluntary reductions, for example, resulted in the capacity shortfall requiring T4 to be built to be eliminated earlier this year."
Australia, not China, the next great shale gas hope: Clyde Russell | Reuters China may boast the world's largest potential reserves of shale gas but is likely to lose to Australia in the race to be second behind the United States in bringing significant production on line. ...Australia has several advantages over China when it comes to developing shale gas reserves, despite its potential resource,estimated at about 437 trillion cubic feet by the Energy Information Administration, being about 40 percent of China's 1,115 trillion cubic feet. Chief among them is that much of the shale reserves are located in remote basins, away from population centres. This means the potential opposition from farmers and environmentalists is reduced and shale drilling is less disruptive to other segments of the economy. Even though the reserves are in remote areas, there is existing infrastructure available as some of these areas, such as the central Australian Cooper Basin, have long histories of conventional gas and oil production. ...Australia's other significant advantage over China is that it is an easy place for global majors to invest and do business..