ASEAN Power Grid agreements do not include Australia- Singapore's declaration that Sun Cable will be "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" meaningless

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

                Singapore aspires to become Asia's renewable energy hub:Nikkei Asia

The Edge reported , quoting Singapore's Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng: 

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has granted conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore, says Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng.

Sun Cable’s US$24 billion ($31.6 billion) Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) project involves laying a 4,300km subsea power cable connecting a solar farm in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore via Indonesian waters.


Considering the scale and distance of the project, Tan expects the Sun Cable project to only come online after 2035. “When completed, the project will be a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid and it will serve as an additional source of low-carbon electricity for Singapore.”

Minister Tan's ambition for Sun Cable to be a "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" is admirable and it is in keeping with his Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ambition  for Singapore to be a renewable energy hub.

However the ASEAN Power Grid agreement does not provide  Australia to be part of the Grid.   Typical of ASEAN it has taken 15 years between the signing of the ASEAN Power Grid agreement in 2009 and the   ASEAN Power Grid Advancement Programme (APG-AP), which is likely to be a series of further talks which will see little if anything being actually done. In any case, none of this involves Australia. 

Singapore's declaration that Sun Cable will  be "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" is in fact meaningless, and it is hard to see why Minister Tan See Leng has chosen to make his unillateral declaration including Australia in the ASEAN Power Grid.

END 

Singapore's undersea solar electric cable will have no regulatory protection, but Singapore PM Lawrence Wong's government has declared the highly risky undersea solar electric cable financially and technically viable

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The Sun Cable project was mooted when Lee Hsien Loong was in charge, but it is now Lawrence Wong's problem

Singapore's Channel News Asia has reported:

Singapore has granted conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Australia to Singapore.

The imported electricity is expected to harness solar power from Australia's Northern Territory and will be transmitted via new subsea cables measuring 4,300km, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA) on Tuesday (Oct 22).

The amount of renewable energy imported represents about 9 per cent of Singapore’s total electricity needs, the company added.

EMA said: "The conditional approval awarded to Sun Cable recognises that the project can be technically and commercially viable based on the proposal and information submitted thus far."

Reporting on the same The Edge Singapore said: quoting   Singapore's  Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng:

“When completed, the project will be a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid and it will serve as an additional source of low-carbon electricity for Singapore.”

The project is risky, to say the least,and as Bevan Slattery points out, there are sections of the proposed cable, which if damaged, are irrepairable given the terrain:

That the Government Of Singapore led now by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong would find this project financially and technically viable, enough to be entrusted with providing 9% of Singapore's power needs is curious, especially  in rule and law driven Singapore, for international  subsea cables operate in a regulatory vacuum (see policy paper below).

The ASEAN Power Grid agreement may possibly provide some protection, but Australia is not a party to it. In addition , introducing  solar energy from Australia into the ASEAN Grid as Minister Tan proposes may well introduce added risks not previously contemplated by the parties. In fact, it does not appear as if any of them have been consulted.

END 

TO BE READ WITH 

Needed, a Framework to Protect Undersea Cables

Ganesh Sahathevan and Prakash Panneerselvam

Issue & Policy Briefs March, 2024

Read full text 

 
 

In the data-driven world we live in, submarine cables are the arteries that connect nation-states and their people in literally every human activity, including trade, commerce, entertainment, and social interactions. Any interference in that flow of data can disrupt lives and livelihoods and compromise the capacity of nation-states to trade, communicate, and defend their interests. There are few instruments in public international law available to nation-states for the protection of submarine cables vital to their national interest.

However, private international law and, in particular, commercial contracts may provide the basis for a network of contracts that may provide the legal framework required to defend the network of submarine cables. The ASEAN Power Grid Agreement and the Five Power Defence Agreement may provide the analytical framework upon which a series of mutual agreements may be constructed so as to create a synthetic hardened shell around the cables.

Read full text

Like Mrs Dysart, SIEW 2024 has potential to excite governments and investors about the potential for uranium in wretched oil wells

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Stella Dysart spent decades searching for oil in New Mexico. In 1955, a radioactive uranium sample from one of her “dusters” made her a very wealthy woman.

The coincidence of oil and uranium is a well know phenomenon, and  this writer has provided examples in these posts.  It is however a phenomenon that has been ignored,  even when nuclear energy is considered a pathway to Net Zero.

The Singapore Energy Week 2024 (SIEW 2024) includes a roundatble titled  Exploring the Role of Nuclear Energy in a Net Zero Asia. That might be a good place to draw the attention of governments and investors to the story of Stella Dysart.

END 

TO BE READ WITH 

Mrs. Dysart’s Uranium Well

Petroleum Pioneers

Decades of futile drilling paid off unexpectedly for this wildcatter.



Stella Dysart spent almost 30 years unsuccessfully searching for oil in New Mexico. In 1955, a radioactive uranium sample from one of her “dusters” made her a very wealthy woman.

In the end, it was the uranium — not petroleum — that made Dysart her fortune. The sometimes desperate promoter of New Mexico oil drilling ventures for more than 30 years, she once served time for fraud. But in 1955, Mrs. Dysart learned she owned the world’s richest deposit of high-grade uranium ore.


LIFE magazine featured Stella Dysart in front of a drilling rig in 1955, soon after she made a fortune from uranium after three decades of failure in petroleum drilling ventures.

Born in 1878 in Slater, Missouri, Dysart moved to New Mexico, where she got into the petroleum and real estate business in 1923. She ultimately acquired a reported 150,000 acres in the remote Ambrosia Lake area 100 miles west of Albuquerque, on the southern edge of the oil-rich San Juan Basin.





Dysart established the New Mexico Oil Properties Association and the Dysart Oil Company. The ventures and other investment schemes would leave her broke, noted John Masters in his 2004 book, Secret Riches: Adventures of an Unreformed Oilman.


The author described Dysart as “a woman who drilled dry holes, peddled worthless parcels of land to thousands of dirt-poor investors, and went to jail for one of her crooked deals.”

Dysart subdivided her properties and subdivided again, selling one-eighth acre leases and oil royalties as small as one-six thousandth to investors. She drilled nothing but dry holes for years and years. Then it got worse.


Before her good fortune from uranium, Stella Dysart served 15 months in prison for unauthorized selling of New Mexico oil leases. In 1941, she had promoted her Dysart No. 1 Federal well, above, which was never completed.

A 1937 Workmen’s Compensation Act judgment against Dysart’s New Mexico Oil Properties Association bankrupted the company, compelling sale of its equipment, “sold as it now lies on the ground near Ambrosia Lake.”



Two years later, it got worse again. Dysart and five Dysart Oil Company co-defendants were charged with 60 counts of conspiracy, grand theft and violation of the corporate securities (act) in 1939. All were convicted, and all did time. Dysart served 15 months in the county jail before being released on probation in March 1941.
Richest Uranium Deposit

By 1952, 74-year-old Dysart was $25,000 in debt when she met uranium prospector Louis Lothman, a young Texan just two years out of college with a geology degree.

When Lothman examined cuttings from a Dysart dry hole in McKinley County in 1955, he got impressive Geiger counter readings. The drilling of several more test wells confirmed the results. Dysart owned the world’s richest deposit of high-grade uranium ore.


Uranium production in the San Juan Basin, 1948-1975 courtesy New Mexico Geological Survey.

The uranium discovery launched an intensive exploration effort that led to development of the multi-million-ton deposits in the Ambrosia Lake area, according to William L. Chenoweth of the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration.



“The San Juan Basin of northwest New Mexico has been the source of more uranium production than any other area in the United States,” he noted in a New Mexico Geological Survey 1977 report, “Uranium in the San Juan Basin.”



Dysart was 78 years old when the December 10, 1955, LIFE magazine featured her picture, captioned: “Wealthy landowner, Mrs. Stella Dysart, stands before abandoned oil rig which she set up on her property in a long vain search for oil. Now uranium is being mined there and Mrs. Dysart, swathed in mink, gets a plump royalty.”

Praised for her success, and memories of fraudulent petroleum deals long forgotten, Dysart died in 1966 in Albuquerque at age 88. As Secret Riches author John Masters explained, “there must be a little more to her story, but as someone said of Truth — ‘it lies hidden in a crooked well.’”

More New Mexico petroleum history can be found in Farmington, including the exhibit “From Dinosaurs to Drill Bits” at the Farmington Museum. Learn about the giant Hobbs oilfield of the late 1920s in New Mexico Oil Discovery.



_______________________

Recommended Reading: Stella Dysart of Ambrosia Lake: Courage, Fortitude and Uranium in New Mexico (1959); Secret Riches: Adventures of an Unreformed Oilman (2004). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.

_______________________

The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Become an AOGHS annual supporting member and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2023 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.

Citation Information – Article Title: Legend of “Mrs. Dysart’s Uranium Well.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/uranium. Last Updated: December 2, 2023. Original Published Date: April 29, 2013.

Israel has dismantled Iran's cash distribution channels by the removal of Haniyeh, Nasrallah and Sinwar- Gerald Templer's methods proving as effective in Gaza as they were in Malaya,,as anticipated

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

Head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, left, and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the terror group, in Gaza City, Dec. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

The removal of Yahya Sinwar from his central position in HAMAS's operations may be considered the latest in one of many disruptions by the IDF of the financing of terrorism in Gaza.

The IDF has in fact a history of effectively combating the financing of terrorism and Sinwa's removal, coming soon after the removal of Haasan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh from their positions of leadership is likely to have significantly disrupted Iran's capacity to distribute cash and other material to HAMAS and Hezbollah. 

These three  men would have been channels for hundreds of millions if not billions for decades, and replacing them would not be as simple as finding the next man, woman or child jihadi martyr for these are positions of trust.  Bluntly, money is thicker than blood, and not even the Iranians would want to be cheated of their money.

Continued destruction of HAMAS and Hezbollah infrastructure in Gaza, the West Bank, Beirut and anywhere else in Lebanon can cause permanent damage to Iran's capacity to attack Israel via its proxies. That was in fact the experience of Britain and her allies in Malaya,against the Communist Party China sponsored Malayan Communist Party.

TO BE READ WITH 

Gaza can be conquered , controlled and turned into another Singapore using the methods of Sir Gerald Templer, and in particular his techniques of intelligence gathering and application

Gaza can be conquered , controlled and turned into another Singapore using the methods of Sir Gerald Templer, and in particular his techniques of intelligence gathering and application

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                                                              

Writing in Newsweek Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid declared that Gaza could have been Singapore but HAMAS turned it into ISIS.

Given Israel's war on HAMAS Gaza may yet be turned into a Singapore by applying the methods employed by the  Tiger Of Malaya, Sir Gerald Templer. . Templer used a network of "new villages" to ensure that Chinese villagers in then Malaya were prevented from providing supplies to  Communist terrorists, and also gather  information about their movements.  His appreciation of intelligence, and in particular human intelligence is not a surprise , given his experience in army intelligence during World War II.

These two newspaper reports  from the mid-1950s illustrate his methods, which  history shows successfully turned Malaysia's Chinese away from the Communist Terrorists and into highly productive units of production and entrepreneurship for the Malaysian economy. 

Indian Daily Mail, 14 November 1952

And also 

The Straits Times, 28 July 1953

Some have attempted to reimagine Templer's methods as a hearts and minds approach to insurgency  but the newspaper reports above show that that was not the case.While the situation faced by Israel is of course not precisely that which Templer faced in Malaya,  his methods can probably be adapted and applied successfully with regard to the conditions and circumstances in Gaza to achieve the same if not better economic outcomes. 

TO BE READ WITH 

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Malaysians would be familiar with Israel's Gaza strategy -it is like that employed by Gerald Templer against Communist Terrorist during the Malayan Emergency

Is Anwar Ibrahim preparing Malaysians and the world for a joint development agreement with China that will include Luconia Shoals?

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                                                                 

The Star and ANN quoting Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reported: 

“Malaysia will not back down from its claims. That is why the exploration by PETRONAS continues, even though it has been raised by China,” he said during Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Oct 15).

He also said territorial disputes in the area involved other countries and so China should not be made the sole focus of the issue.

“(These countries include) Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.

“That’s why we don’t agree if this problem is focused on China,” he added in response to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PN-Kota Baru).However, Anwar gave an assurance that the country’s firm stance would not hinder diplomatic relations, trade and friendships with the nations concerned

The Star report is generally faithful to Anwar's speech in Malay, reported in part by CNA (see Youtube recording above from 1:50-2:30). Having said that Anwar's words need closer attention, in particular his reference to disputes with Thailand and Brunei. Both have involved disputes over oil and gas exploration acreage and while these have been resolved, resolution has not necessarily been to Malaysia's advantage. Some in Malaysia consider the Malaysia Thai Joint Development agreement a triumph of diplomacy over economics for it gave Thialand access to oil and gas located in the Malay Basin which is mostly located in Malaysian wate., The deal with Brunei enetered into by then Prime Miniser Badawi was torn up by Prime Minister Mahathir Moahamad when he became prime minister for the second time in 2018 (see story below). 

Anwar's words suggest that he may be preparing the ground for a Thai or Brunei type agreement with China, quite likely over acreage  in the Luconia Shoals area.  Quite apart from the potential economic loss to Malaysia , a deal such as that with China will give the PRC recognition from at least Malaysia over the southern most point of its disputed Nine Dash Line.

END 

Monday, March 2, 2020

Mahathir terminated Badawi's bad Brunei oil agreement ; Muhyiddin should not restore that bad deal

by Ganesh Sahathevan



(Source:Were Blocks L and M previously part of Malaysia, revisited)


Energy Reporters has said:

Malaysia has cancelled a cross-border deal with Brunei to develop oil and gas fields along their shared maritime boundary.

Malaysian sources said state-owned Petronas had halted discussions earlier this month on collaboration over several drilling projects straddling the maritime boundary or within the Malaysia-Brunei Commercial Arrangement Area.


Malaysia has purportedly complained about the proposed revenue split, which was agreed by the previous government before the May 2018 general election.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 94, since returning to power as head of his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition has reportedly taken a tough approach with Brunei and demanded a better deal.

The Brunei deal was in fact former PM Badawi's doing,and taken further by Najib. The new  Muhyiddin government  should not restore that bad deal.


END

Malaysia pulls plug on cross-border Brunei projects
By Energy Reporters | 29.02.2020 | Production


Malaysia has cancelled a cross-border deal with Brunei to develop oil and gas fields along their shared maritime boundary.

Malaysian sources said state-owned Petronas had halted discussions earlier this month on collaboration over several drilling projects straddling the maritime boundary or within the Malaysia-Brunei Commercial Arrangement Area.


Malaysia has purportedly complained about the proposed revenue split, which was agreed by the previous government before the May 2018 general election.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 94, since returning to power as head of his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition has reportedly taken a tough approach with Brunei and demanded a better deal.

Brunei is supposedly keen to restart negotiations and develop a new source of natural gas.

The BP World Energy Outlook forecast that at its current pace of extraction, Brunei will have no hydrocarbon resources left in 15 years.

PetroleumBrunei is purportedly looking to work with Petronas to develop a group of gas-rich fields to supply the Brunei liquefied natural gas terminal at Lumut.


Declining hydrocarbon incomes are hurting Brunei, which is accustomed to extreme wealth. The tiny state has the world’s largest residential palace. Approximately US$1.4 billion was spent by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on his home, which has 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms and 7,000 luxury vehicles in more than 100 garages.

This year unemployment is projected to rise to approximately 9.1 per cent, the highest level in Southeast Asia, despite the attraction of 0 per cent income tax. But foreigners continue to arrive, mainly from India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, to take up jobs the indigenous population does not want.

The authorities in Brunei offer residents free health care, free education and housing development programmes.


This generous welfare state will be under threat if new oil and gas sources are not found.

In October last year, France’s oil and gas giant Total agreed to sell its near 87-per-cent stake in a maritime block to Royal Dutch Shell for US$300 million. The agreement has now been delayed amid the bilateral wrangling with Malaysia.

A solution after this week looks far more distant as Mahathir has created a political crisis by bringing down the ruling PH coalition, leaving Malaysia’s royal leaders to try to establish a new government.

The dispute has created uncertainty for fossil fuel firms operating within Malaysian territory, which is expected to affect extraction investment in the future.


The delays will limit oil and gas production growth, reducing income for the Malaysian and Bruneian authorities.

"Supply chain attack" suggests that Hezbollah pager attack might be the work of insiders in conflict with brethren, not Mossad

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Pagers were widely used before the proliferation of mobile phones in the late 1990s and early 2000s. (Wikimedia Commons/Kevster). From "What Is A Peger", Indian Express

The Hezbollah  pager  "supply chain attack" (as the BBC says it might be)  suggests that the Hezbollah pager attack might be  the work of insiders in conflict with brethren, and  not Mossad.  It is to be noted that even the Russians are being circumspect, avoinding any direct refewrence to Israel or Mossad and instead to "the organizers of this high-tech attack". 



The BBC has reported:


Analysts have been quick to express shock at the scale of Tuesday's attack - saying Hezbollah prides itself on its security measures.

Some suggested a hack may have caused the pager batteries to overheat, causing the devices to explode. Such an act would be unprecedented.

But many experts say that is unlikely, with footage of the explosions inconsistent with the batteries overheating.

Some analysts say ithat some sort of supply chain attack, which involved the pagers being tampered with during their manufacture or in transit, was more likely.

Supply chain attacks are a growing concern in the cyber-security world with many high-profile incidents recently caused by hackers gaining access to products while they are in development.

But these attacks are normally contained to software. Hardware supply chain attacks are far rarer as they involve getting hands on to the device.

If this was indeed a supply chain attack it would have involved a huge operation to secretly tamper with the pagers in some way.

Security officials in Lebanon say that the pagers were packed with a small amount of explosives months before the devices entered the country.




Additionally Rueters is reporting:

The senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 pagers from Gold Apollo, which several sources say were brought into the country earlier this year.
Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that Gold Apollo named in a statement as BAC.
"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Hsu told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday.
The stated address for BAC Consulting in Hungary's capital Budapest was a peach building on a mostly residential street in an outer suburb. The company name was posted on the glass door on an A4 sheet.
A person at the building who asked not to be named said BAC Consulting was registered there but did not have a physical presence. The CEO of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono says on her LinkedIn profile that she has worked as an adviser for various organisations including UNESCO. She did not respond to emails from Reuters.
BAC's registered activities are wide ranging, from computer game publishing to IT consulting to crude oil extraction.

Meanwhile the Russians are being circumspect:

“We regard what happened as yet another act of hybrid warfare against Lebanon, which has harmed thousands of innocent people. It appears that the organizers of this high-tech attack deliberately sought to foment a large-scale armed confrontation in order to provoke a major war in the Middle East,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, wrote in a statement.

The study of terrorist financing is primarily concerned with how, not why. 

The above suggests that the Hezbollah pager attack might be  the work of insiders in conflict with brethren, not Mossad.

END 

Curious that Senator Penny Wong has said nothing about fellow South Australian and Malaysian Adele Koh

  by Ganesh Sahathevan 

"The trouble is that the Australian press is still infantile....It does not know how to control its bowels. Only one paper has to get on to a good story and we get several cases of verbal and pictorial diarrhea, all trying to go one better"\

Adele Koh,c .1975

The Advertiser,,1977

                                SA State Library -Royal Visit archives
    

When campaigning for election in 2019 Penny Wong said that appointing her the first Asian-Australian foreign minister would send a strong message to Asians that Australia was not white and racist . Australian media, especially the ABC were happy to go along with that narrative, but a bit of research would  have shown that relations between Australians and Asians, including Malaysians,  were well underway at all levels long before Penny Wong Ying Yen was born.

It is highly unlikely that Penny Wong is unaware of that history, her Sabah Hakka-Cantonese father married an Australian from South Australia, while he was a student here. Given that history it is curious that Penny Wong has had nothing to say about fellow Malaysian and South Australian Adele Koh's contributions to that ongoing relationshsip.  Adele Koh's contributions were quite public, and the photo above from The Advertiser was front page of the Malay Mail in 1977, when that paper was the country's premier afternoon paper.                                                                                                                                                                       Those who knew her in Malaysia had a good laugh, all in the knowledge that someone whom they knew to be highly intelligent had conjured up yet another episode to amuse herself and entertain others. Wong's failure to acknowledge the work of others in an attempt to portray herself as the one born to redeem Australia's reputation in Asia and the world is even more galling given the record of the former South Australian Premier Don Dunstan's close relationship with Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Penang's Lim Chong Eu, and native appreciation of South East Asian culture. He was also married to Adele Koh, until her death in 1978.

END

See Also 

"The trouble is that the Australian press is still infantile," she said. "It does not know how to control its bowels. Only one paper has to get on to a good story and we get several cases of verbal and pictorial diarrhea, all trying to go one better."

Yesterday in their Reliving 40 Years series, the STAR featured two ladies I knew as friends.

I met Adele at one Press Ball. We used to have lots of Balls those days like the Ad Agency Balls. Every organization held one ball or another annually. However, when we questioned why nobody held the government’s Ball, a furor ensued and we never had anymore Balls and henceforth only Annual Dinners…..no more holding any Balls. Period. I digress….

Adele, when we reminisced, reminded me that she boarded with Mum when she had a brief stay in Taiping. I was training to be a teacher in Penang then. I remember Adele for many things, some told to me by her journalists’ colleagues. But we all agreed on one thing…..her legs were meant only for mini-skirts which was the rage then and dang, she did carry those minis so well. All typewriters stopped clacking when Adele entered the Press Desk. She had straight, healthy jet-black hair which was in vogue then. In 1975 she moved to South Australia as a political staffer and later became the wife of the 35^th Premier of South Australia, Don Dunstan. "She has the high cheekbones of her Asian forebears," wrote one, "and she walks with the in-born grace of the East." The fact that she was from Penang added to her exotic status. If you thought she was a bimbo, how wrong you are. She chided the Australian Press:

"The trouble is that the Australian press is still infantile," she said. "It does not know how to control its bowels. Only one paper has to get on to a good story and we get several cases of verbal and pictorial diarrhea, all trying to go one better."

If cancer of the lungs did not end this young firebrand’s life can you imagine what she would today say about our Main Stream Media! Maybe much worse things! No?