Coal

[mhlld]

Gladstone to be coal world No 1
Sean Parnell, Queensland political reporter
October 05, 2005
THE central Queensland port of Gladstone is set to become the world's largest coal export facility, with the Beattie Government fast-tracking a redevelopment in the massive Bowen and Surat basins.

The decision capitalises on the resources boom and allows the expansion of existing operations, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs.

Gladstone is the third-biggest coal exporter in Australia - behind the privately owned Hay Point/Dalrymple Bay facilities in Queensland and the government-owned Newcastle port in NSW - and the only port in the world where the government also owns and operates the loading infrastructure.

Having moved to break the bureaucratic bottlenecks that have slowed exports and delayed infrastructure, Premier Peter Beattie said his newly installed Co-ordinator-General, Ross Rolfe, had taken charge of two major projects at Gladstone.

Mr Beattie said construction of the Wiggins Island coal terminal and associated rail infrastructure, which will cost $1.8 billion and be completed by 2010, would allow for 140 million tonnes of coal to be exported from Gladstone every year.

"It ensures long-term supply chain opportunities for the central Queensland coalfields and strengthens the possibility of further expansions in the Bowen and Surat basins," Mr Beattie said, noting his target of Queensland exporting 220 million tonnes of coal by 2010.

While the project will create 500 construction jobs and 125 operational jobs in the industrial city, it will also fill the Government's coffers with coal royalties, which are this year expected to pass $1 billion for the first time.

Gladstone will overtake Qinhuangduo port in northern China as the world's largest coal export point and Mr Beattie said he was determined to help meet the long-term demands of China and India, along with Queensland's traditional customers in Europe.

"The demand for coal is so extensive that I can't see, even with a slightly reduced demand out of China, it having any great impact on the price of coal," Mr Beattie said.

Having dismissed calls for uranium mining to be re-embraced, Mr Beattie said Queensland was using its 300-year supply of coal and working on clean coal technology to ensure the industry had a long-term future.

Central Queensland Ports Authority chief executive Leo Zussino said Gladstone had sold 75million tonnes of capacity in line with a continuing expansion. It already had expressions of interest for 50 million tonnes of the 70 million extra tonnes of capacity expected to be brought on line through the Wiggins Island project.

Following the heated debate over the export bottleneck at Dalrymple Bay, Mr Zussino said the Government had given certainty to mining companies and coal buyers and demonstrated that Gladstone could support the further development of the Bowen and Surat basins.

"In a world where you supposedly have to be private to be successful, we are being compared with coal-exporting terminals that are operated by the coal exporting companies themselves," Mr Zussino said.

However, a spokesman for the Queensland Resources Council called on the Government to examine all export alternatives and work with the industry to develop a masterplan to maximise coal expansion opportunities.

Mr Rolfe, who is Queensland's highest-paid bureaucrat after being seconded to the position from the Stanwell power corporation, declared Wiggins Island a "significant project" and made a similar declaration over the planned reclamation of 153ha of land nearby to allow the Fisherman's Landing to eventually host 11 wharves and support additional industry.

Mr Beattie said the special legislation introduced into Parliament yesterday, initially prompted by the planned $1 billion-plus road tunnel under the Brisbane CBD, would prevent the approval process for significant infrastructure projects being delayed by unnecessary Environmental Impact Statements.

"The Coordinator-General will follow the normal EIS assessments, we're not going to abandon them we just need to make sure that they're done in a timely manner and that's what the legislation provides," he said.

Mr Rolfe has already pushed through a number of projects and Mr Beattie said he expected more to be facilitated in the coming months.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16819625%255E2702,00.html