Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova; Surging wholesale gas prices have claimed a major scalp, catapulting our new climate activist federal government into their first energy supply crisis.
Global gas crunch claims first Australian trading casualty
By Sonali Paul
May 24, 20222:05 PM GMT+10MELBOURNE, May 24 (Reuters) – A gas seller that supplied 7% of the eastern Australian market has collapsed due to soaring global gas prices, the first significant casualty in the country from the global gas supply crisis due to sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The Essential Services Commission on Tuesday suspended private gas retailer Weston Energy from the wholesale gas market for failing to meet financial security requirements and said the company’s 184 large and medium-sized customers would be shifted to other suppliers.
The collapse of Weston Energy underscores energy price concerns set to face Australia’s new Labor government, as it pushes to rapidly expand renewable energy to replace gas and coal over the next eight years.
Weston Energy Managing Director Garbis Simonian said gas prices had nearly tripled since the start of the year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
…
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/global-gas-crunch-claims-first-australian-trading-casualty-2022-05-24/
The Ukraine war might have supplied the final straw, but climate activist state governments have contributed more than their share of gas price pain. For example, in 2021 the Victorian government amended the state constitution to permanently ban fracking.
In the tropical state of Queensland where I live, winter tends to be an inconvenience. I only use gas for cooking, so the price rise doesn’t really bother me. Half an hour switching on a 2KW wall socket heater is enough to take the edge off the coldest mornings.
But for NSW and Victoria, the surge in gas prices means real pain for consumers, many of whom heat their homes with gas. The Southern half of Australia, including the heavily populated East Coast states Victoria and New South Wales, experience long cold wet winters, with very little sunshine. Temperatures rarely drop far below freezing, but the weather is persistently damp and cold. Even in Summer, mild weather can turn freezing cold without warning – Last time I booked a stay in the Victorian highlands it snowed for a week in Summer, which gives you a fair idea of the local climate.
The socialists Australia elected last Saturday will either have a razor thin parliamentary majority, or will be forced to govern with the help of the greens. So it is going to be interesting to see how they balance the need to keep their green allies happy, with the wholesale gas price / winter heating crisis which is developing on their watch.
I suppose we should not chortle, but it will be an interesting situation for the Socialists to deal with. Admit their energy policy was wrong, or try to continue to insist they were right despite the facts. This needs to happen to a few more energy sector companies!
They will never admit they are wrong. They will double down on stupid.
They will blame he Right.
They will not admit that they are wrong. It will instead be an opportunity to seize even more power. I expect that as more energy companies collapse, the Aussie government will suck up the market, control it, then burn it to the ground in the name of “transitioning” to renewables.
I am pretty sure you are correct, and the net result will resemble something between Mexico and Venezuela.
I suspect more towards that later. The recent governments of Mexico (read Cartels) are not completely stupid and have strong economic support from the USA, from money transfers to citizens to all kinds of exports to the USA.
Australia, for the most part, only has exports to China to prop them up, and China has proven if Australia says something they don’t like they will swiftly punish AUS.
“The recent governments of Mexico (read Cartels) are not completely stupid and have strong economic support from the USA, from money transfers to citizens to all kinds of exports to the USA.”
Yeah, and the Mexican Cartels have a good friend in President Joe Biden who enables their criminal enterprises by throwing the U.S. southern border wide open.
What I want to know is how much of a cut the Cartels are paying the Big Guy.
In a Socialist Country, while ether Dictated by a light red Socialist politburo or deep red
Communist politburo, it is the same as in a Fascist State, where any propaganda against the Politburo, by law is a crime against the state and the people, mostly within the frame of ‘The enemy of the state’ or the ‘Enemy of the people’.
Where any thing said, even per the most innocent thought, but which actually displeases even at the slightest the Party or the Politburo, categorically instantly consist as propaganda against the state and the Party, the mother of the people.
AUS is not there yet, but it seem like very eager to get there ASAP.
Yes, indeed, there truly still is a choice, for the people to still choose by vote on the option;
Fascist State or Socialist State.
cheers
Failure is part of the energy plan. Rather than admit guilt, they’d rather hype Wuhan flu/monkeypox
for an excuse to lock up potential protesters. It worked the last time! 😮
They will use the chaos that they created as an excuse to have government completely take over the energy industry.
for a start Ukies/russia should have ZERO to do with it! we sold our gas to OS japan etc dirt cheap on longterm deals decades ago and then WE mugs pay insanely high prices for what they left for us at home. thats coastal vic nsw gas as well as the huge amounts from WA they ship off directly OS.
we can use conventional offshore or on shore without messy frakking, BUT try n tell the greentards or the young brainwashed ones that! dumbo n the d*ke will have a fieldday with this trying to push the green agenda, good luck with that..
meanwhile the saner amongst us have a 3 yr wait praying they cant manage to ruin too much, may be a forlorn hope;-((
Just wait – Labour and their Green cohorts will be begging for more fossil fuels to keep their comfortable lives going. After all, you can’t be sat in a freezing house whilst you make your demo placards about the globe burning to a crisp.
True. Biden has been begging for more oil and gas, even from high polluting countries like Venezuela and Russia, so the precedent is there.
Did you mean that president is here?
If history is any example, you will be in bread lines while gov’t employees will be eating caviar. Tomorrow will be no different than yesterday.
You get net zero points for guessing why. When supply is restricted and demand is high prices shoot up.
“It [2021] has been a harrowing year for the UK’s energy providers, with 27 having stopped trading already and more thought to be facing collapse.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/household-bills/energy-companies-gone-bust-2021-25541765
On top of all this the eco-loons are ramping up their ‘protests’
“Three arrested at Shell AGM as protesters chant ‘We will stop you’
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/24/shell-pause-london-agm-protesters-oil-gas-green
They have filled the heads of our youth with nonsense and doomism and they are now reaping the rewards.
“Boss of collapsed energy firm Bulb is STILL being paid the £250,000-a-year salary he received before it went bust despite company receiving £1.7billion government bailout”Daily Mail
Yes it sure is harrowing for those poor energy companies. Tough times on 250k!
They aren’t out of the woods yet.
25% of UK electricity bills pay for the green dream. There are calsl for that to go…
Do you have any evidence that he isn’t worth what he is being paid? Or do you just assume that nobody should be allowed to make more than you do?
“Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has taken home a whopping £6.1 million pay package following an “impressive financial performance for the oil giant”. Total remuneration for the top Shell (LON: SHEL) boss equates to a 27% increase on 2020’s £4.8m, which comes after Shell reported pre-tax profits of nearly £22.7bn last year.” EnergyVoice.com
Harrowing times for the bigs boys of the energy sector as well. I pity the fools!
The way things are going, you can have all the money in the world and there will be nothing to buy.
Saw a program the other day about Shell’s activities in Nigeria. Absolute disgraceful behaviour, their whole board and executive should be in jail
Did it cover what the Nigerian government and local tribal chiefs get up to? Or the local people? Sounds like you caught some one sided propaganda, designed to paper over some rather less pleasant truths.
Reminds me of a scheme from a few years back between a US legal firm and the government of some Latin American country. They sued a US oil firm over damage that had actually been caused by a local company after the US company had left. The local judge was on the payroll as well.
Chevron
Ecuador
Rent seeking ambulance chaser lawyers
I pity you. Looking in someone’s wallet a then trying to make them out to be bad just because they have larger wallet than you.
I would guess his pay amounts to less than $00.01 per gallon of gas sold. Besides it’s a private company they get to choose the amount of pay per position.
He didn’t cause the problem and neither did the other person you brought up. The government did by listening to liars.
Hey, MKelly, what are you talking about? How do you know how big my wallet is? I can tell you now – it is absolutely massive. Not full, but plenty of space. I’m not blaming anyone for ‘causing the problem’. You’re just making up a load of old tripe without actually reading what I said.
By the way, the fact it is a private company is fine, but it is improperly regulated. The regulation is corrupt and the market rigged and distorted. Any salary over 1m should be taxed at a rate of >95% – that’s part of responsible government. So pretending that it’s a private company and free to do whatever it wants, in a perfectly fair and open market – including atrocities in Africa, and that this is all part and parcel of good common capitalist sense is equally rubbish.
>95%!?!?
You’re just jealous of the rewards someone reaps from making the right decisions in their choice of education and fields of employment.
A flat tax would be more indusive to personal responsibility and reward success better, to make sure we have entrepreneurs constantly coming up with the next big industry and the next big revolution in tech.
Anyways, income tax should never be above 50% at maximum – it feels like you are a slave working for other people instead of your own family.
I guess however, people will dispute what I say. The oil company execs will be stifled under such draconian laws and find it easy to emigrate to other countries and their oil companies. You countries’ oil companies will stagnate from the lack of good management and tech (lured away by foreign companies) and will eventually be bought out by said foreign companies. Jobs, services and rents that propped up the economy will be outsourced to the country of the head office, never to be seen again.
Former workers will be drawning on social services instead of goid paying jobs.
Good luck with that.
Don’t kill the geese that lay the golden eggs – even if you are jealous of what they make.
First he says he’s not concerned with how much other people make, then he declares that government should steal most of the money that earn more than he thinks should be allowed.
The heart of socialism is always jealousy that other people have more than you do.
I also love the way he just declares that the propaganda he’s been consuming must be true, because capitalists are evil.
Government is responsible for determining what people earn?
I vote you get a pay reduction, then.
It really is amazing how jealousy drives your average socialist.
Worth bearing in mind that energy retailers merely send bills and collect payments, it is a system of fake competition, and a convenient scapegoat for rising prices. It would be much more efficient for just one body (dare I suggest state owned?) to collect all gas/electricity/water payments from houses and companies in one monthly bill.
Back when we had a functioning energy market it worked out OK – retailers profited from their skill at predicting demand, and working out the right balance between pre-purchasing and buying on demand from the spot market. All this provided cheaper power for consumers and a more predictable income stream for producers.
That was a long time ago. After a brief golden age of freedom and low prices, the government decided to retreat from freedom and start manipulating the market again, with green targets and other interventions, and fracking bans and other restrictions on exploration. The current mess is the outcome of that clumsy policy of interference.
One of the biggest manipulations of the energy market in the UK is the Price Cap. In a market where prices have risen all energy suppliers charge the maximum possible to avoid going bust later if prices keep rising. If a UK politician sees sense and allows fracking and oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea and Atlantic and the price starts falling then coming off the price cap will be long and slow.
Ed Miliband came up with a lot of bad ideas, and hasn’t learnt from history that market manipulation never works out well for consumers.
He recommended that prices be fixed just before they started falling for two years – and they only got back to his fix level last summer. The retailers feared that the fix would be made mandatory, so they went out and bought forward hedges. When wholesale prices fell, they were unable to offer better deals to customers. Instead, new fly-by-night companies set up, undercutting the main retailers by not hedging, and by taking advantage of exemptions for smaller companies from having to pay all the green subsidies. Of course when the market turned, and prices started going up they were unhedged, and then caught out by the OFGEM cap. That is why so many of them went bankrupt.
Because nothing is more efficient than state owned utilities?
“Because nothing is more efficient than state owned utilities?”
Swiss trains seem to do OK, as do Austrian ones.
Energy distribution and water distribution should be state run with all citizens paying a similar tarriff. and politicians taking responsibility directly. We, the citizens, own the infrastructure and the ground it runs through. This would also mean that the massive distortions of the rigged market could be avoided. i.e those that use the least should pay the same price as those that use the most – not the idiotic situation we have now where poor people with pay-as-you-go meters pay double or triple what rich people who buy high volumes in advance pay.
It’s not an all or nothing thing… some things are better in state hands: like the police, army and prisons – look at the hideous distortion of the justice system caused by lobbying of private prison companies in the USA, and many other distortions – it’s gone too far, and the pendulum needs ot swing back toward public ownership and public accountability.
It really is amazing how socialists/communists actually believe the tripe they’ve been taught.
The government owns all the land in a country and therefore the government should own the utilities as well.
Who cares that the history of government ownership of anything is rife with waste, mismanagement and corruption. This time it’s gonna work.
Why not? It’s worked out really well for Venezuela…!
Cuba, North Korea, Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, All the Eastern European countries, Laos, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, do I need to keep going? There’s at least 150,000,000 dead bodies to go along with the BBBillions that have or are suffering to go algo with this list.
Of government ownership and control of everything was the good deal of your fantasies, then communism should be paradise.
It is not an all or nothing thing. Germany is not communist but has a great deal of state infrastructure, Norway similarly, with a public health system for all, and public trains and buses. In Norway about 98% of energy distribution is owned by the state, and so on. Norway is not communist. Norway is a rational democracy – so you with your over simplistic childish references to absolutes does nothing to forward the discussion and is just boring pessimistic detritus that litters the comments section.
You reckon Venezuela will get it right NEXT time?
Norway is the exception that proves the rule. Probably the most well endowed country in Europe in terms of energy per head of population. Oil and gas in the North Sea, Hydro in a largely uninhabited north and interior, wind of their own and surplus from Denmark. All for a population of 5.5 million, the saame population as Scotland.
In that situation even a communist government would manage to run a country reasonably successfully. Even an SNP government could manage reasonably well
Pity Norwegians are known for being awful pessimistic manic depressives with the odd Breivik thrown in here and there.
Norway is anything but Nirvana!
When the oil money dries up…. 😉
Germany may not be communist, but their standard of living is way below countries that are actually capitalist.
Norway is running off of dividends from oil and gas, when that runs out, so do the goodies.
It really is amazing how many lies socialists tell each other about how good socialism is.
Germany has manipulated the EU and it currency to give it an export advantage over the rest of Europe, this is where their money comes from that they use for their non-sense, while the rest of Europe eats crap. That will dry up and along with it their wealth.
Ditto – Jay.
Australia absorbs annually 100x more co2 than Australians emits.
Restricting fossil fuel usage to harm yourself is literally Nelson Muntz hitting Millhouse with his own fist whilst asking ‘why are you hitting yourself?’…
We have some really dumb people in positions of influence who are driving this mess.
The other day I watched a MSM news channel, there was an ignorant anchor going on and on about how easy Net Zero was, “I mean all you have to do is put some solar panels in the desert, that doesn’t sound difficult, right?”. I think its fair to say she had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.
It is just like the Covid crisis. The people who came to mandate arbitrary rules which then became idiotic rituals no one could relax were people of very limited medical knowledge (often medical technicians); absolutely no understanding of epidemics — never read a research paper in their lives; couldn’t understand data. Lots of people with deep understanding were shunted aside for media proclaimed “experts.”
and then came Boris, Cressida the biggest Dick, the corrupt met and the Gray report.
boglands united and CO2 +lies unlimited.
Whats not to like?
Help! Can anyone suggest an alternative to unreliables penalties?
Victoria seeks smarter ideas than solar taxes to manage grid voltage | RenewEconomy
Here’s your calling griff.
The UK National Grid already upgraded itself to meet changes needed to Frequency Response and issues around inertia, plus UK govt is funding 24 pilot projects on long term storage.
Victoria can follow the UK lead.
There is no possibility of long-term storage that would make solar and wind reliable. The world’s largest backup battery can back up a solar farm the size of a single nuclear plant (1000 MWe) for a few minutes. That’s all. The pilot projects are just subsidy mining.
By promoting this sham, Griffter, you’re going to be killing elderly people who can’t survive cold weather without reliable electricity.
I read also that the push for ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) compliance is now head butting the mining operations that are needed to be turned up to 11 to provide the ingredients for all the storage and EV batteries that will required for low / no emissions.
Something will have to give . . .
This ^
If the government says that it is true, then it must be true.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
“upgraded itself to meet changes” is just word-salad. All the changes they’ve made have been to support demand-side management using “smart” meters. in other words, the capability to selectively turn off your power when they have power shortfalls, which they are expecting will be quite often.
So far I have yet to even see a workable theory on how to maintain good frequency control on a grid consisting primarily of windmills, solar EV plants, and battery backup. Not to mention how you would do a black-start of such a system, which is the next level problem.
To penury?
WTF? you know F-A all about grids and power distribution you MUPPET!
When you say UK govt, you really say UK consumers, and why need govt funding when renewables are so cheap?
They built more coal-fired electric plants? Did I miss it?
“Weston Energy Managing Director Garbis Simonian said gas prices had nearly tripled since the start of the year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”
I am sick to my teeth hearing pundits blaming the price of gas on war in Ukraine. It takes five seconds on Google to find the charts showing the price of gas started going parabolic two years ago. War in Ukraine doesn’t help but the real source of the problem is all that money we printed since 2008. It is starting to leak into the real economy.
It certainly accelerated with all the global helicopter money for Covid. Not least in Oz paying the populace to sit on their ass for a year or so. It was bipartisan policy to do that with Labor always spruiking for more handouts to more sectional groups and for longer as well as free RAT tests for all etc.
Now 3 days in and the new Labor Treasurer is crying the books are in dire straits and it’s worse than they thought. They’ll be on the nose by Xmas after promising to change the climate lift wages deal with inflation and would you believe promising $275 lower power bills as retailers were already giving the punters the bad news.
In the US in February, gas was $3.44, +57% since FJB was elected. It’s now $4.60, +25% since
Feb. It’s as you said, Ukraine’s another one of FJB’s lame excuses. From a previous comment:
EVERYONE HAS NEEDLESSLY HIGH GAS PRICES! Gas >2X since Biden elected.
Nov 2020– US avg- $2.19, $3.33 San Fran high, $1.72 Tulsa low; Diesel $2.48
High gas prices are because of a$$en!ne stupidity!!!
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/11/08/ticker-state-strikes-deal-on-wind-power-gas-prices-drop-in-u-s/
Excellent news. Stupidity and poor decisions need to be punished.
Nations have fallen into the trap of looking only at Today’s Price for energy sources and failing to realize the importance of Energy Security and Energy Self-Reliance. The Aussies have, as I understand it, shuttered dependable coal plants that could be supplying near endless electricity and co-generated heat to cities. Coal is Australia’s major native energy provider.
Here’s the numbnuts trying to work out why the electricity market is broken and lamenting the incoming Labor Govt will cop the political fallout-
Soaring electricity prices start to bite, but worst delayed until after election | RenewEconomy
The rollout of solar and wind has continued unabated and all it took with the level of penetration was a few coal generators running on sticky tape and string to drop out to tip a bucket on the grid and ultimately the power market. Now generators and retailers are going to price in uncertainty in a general rising market that is underpinned by expensive gas to keep the lights on. Essentially the NEM grid has reached peak stupid unreliables and the AEMO people didn’t want to be the messenger in an election campaign so kept their heads down to deliver the bad news to the winners.
Nobody is blaming Trump?????
Anyway, Aus. gets closer to winning the World Crash Test Dummy award.
We all expect the award to be decided on a big, flashy electric grid failure, like a total and abrupt collapse of the power system. As it turns out, a complete collapse of a fossil fuel market might do as well.
We will have to see what the judges say.
The Greenies War on Coal is at the root of this. Seriously, what did they expect? Coal was always a buffer against high gas prices for whatever reason.
The bottom lined is the wrong people are in power and no way to get them out.
No doubt the government will use this as proof that the private sector cannot deliver energy reliably, and therefore the whole sector is going to have to be nationalized.
And the usual myrmidons will celebrate that salvation is at hand.
So after 9 years of a right wing government in Australia and less than a week of a Labor government it appears that we can blame Labor for the energy crisis that “is developing on their watch”.
No blame here, but what is to become of their net zero ambition. I guess the backtrack can be ‘blamed’ on a prescient former ‘right wing’ gov. The fact that Europe is folding on its replacing Russian gas with windmills, having wisely signed long term contracts with Russia, will be further food for thought for the new Ozzie gov.
Oz was the odd man out on the climate with the former gov. Are you betting they the nee gov will go it alone now that Europe has bowed out?
You’re right Izaak, we can’t directly blame Labor for the crisis, but they along with the Greens were noisy cheerleaders for renewables and blackmailers of fossil fuels generated electricity taking every opportunity to attribute weather events to FFs.
We can also blame Coalition in State governments for blocking development applications for new coal and uranium mines and in more recent years favouring the so called renewables.
Hey “righties” can be stupid too…in the US see Mitt, Bush, Cocaine Mitch…
Trump was probably the most honest President in the US and the uni-party couldn’t stand it. Russia Colluuuusion…say it with me Simon.
They only appear to be right wing when compared against most politicians in the common wealth.
Once again, anything to the right of pure communism is declared “right wing”.
Actually we can blame Labor for their natural gas export agreement and renewable energy target with several billions of dollars a year in direct subsidies for the businesses based on wind and solar energy.
Labor states pioneered the transition to renewable energy led by South Australia where power station public assets were demolished to ensure they could not be recommissioned. The privatisation of State power stations and transmission lines was well underway when for example the NSW and VIC State Labor Governments were replaced by Coalition.
It was Federal Labor and with Greens pushing them in the 2010 minority alliance government that also introduced a carbon tax and a renewable energy surcharge on electricity bills, both 10 per cent plus GST 10 per cent and 10 per cent of revenue donated to UN green funds. A Coalition Federal Government abolished those taxes and slightly reduced the Renewable Energy Target but could not reduce it more because of opposition numbers exceeding government in Parliament.
Much more to the history.
I feel for the Australians who will be hurt by this but the power to end their misery is in their own hands. Stop voting these ignorant, heartless, left wing, socialist, progressive, liberal crackpots into office. They are not your friend, they are liars and cheats.
Those ignorant, heartless, left wing, socialist, progressive, liberal crackpots are all we get to vote for. There is no genuine conservative party left in Aus, the political spectrum has drifted so far to the left that Mao Tse Tung reincarnated would be labelled a right wing hack.
I believe that our luck has changed, the next Opposition Leader is a conservative centre-right Liberal Party of Australia traditional MP. The Deputy will be the previous National Party of Australia Leader and Deputy PM. Most of the centre left or further left MPs masquerading as Liberal Party MPs lost their election last Saturday.
Unfortunately some remain at State Government level and are playing silly buggers trying to convince anybody who will listen that returning to traditional Liberal ground would be a disaster.
The National Party retained all of their electorate seats last Saturday because they presented as the electorates favour, conservatives.
Can anybody post a URL to a chart from an Australian source showing say 12 months of east coast wholesale gas prices in Giga-Joules – these prices shown here by AEMO where I can only see a few days of data. Hoping for data current to this month
https://aemo.com.au/energy-systems/gas/short-term-trading-market-sttm/data-sttm/data-dashboard-sttm
THANKS
Longer term chart here:
https://www.aer.gov.au/wholesale-markets/wholesale-statistics/sttm-quarterly-prices
The AER chart is to end March – so presumably the big leap to $30-38 Kangaroos has been in April and May. Thanks – I will keep a lookout for a chart to current dates. I hear on TV news in NSW Govts and bureaucrats trying to talk down the rising power bills.