More on Woodside and WA gas prices.

Maybe this story - 'Gas price inflated, watchdog called in' - in todays Australian answers my question on the previous blog post about how much Woodside cares about the West Australian public?

The story goes like this:

"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's enforcement branch is investigating whether the North West Shelf joint venture partners should be allowed to continue marketing gas as a single supplier, after a complaint by customers that the arrangement could be forcing them to pay higher prices".

"A spokesman for the Domgas Alliance of West Australian gas customers, Stuart Hohnen, told The Weekend Australian that customers had seen a rapid rise in prices as supply had become constrained and believed that was a result of the significant market power exercised by the North West Shelf partners, which made up 70 per cent of the West Australian market.
"Prices have risen from $2.50 a gigajoule to $8 in recent contracts and the expectation in requests for tender is that new gas will be sold in the $15 to $20 a gigajoule range," Mr Hohnen said".

We need Green Not Greed.

How much does Woodside care about the WA public?

Am I the only one that can see something horribly wrong with this story on the West today?

The story starts: "The feud between Woodside and the Federal Government intensified yesterday after the energy giant confirmed it would pass on all of a proposed $2.5 billion tax to WA gas consumers and slash expenditure on its massive Browse LNG development in the State’s north in response to plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme. In his most vehement attack yet on policies of the Rudd Government, Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte said the North-West Shelf partners would increase the price of gas for WA customers to recoup the excise imposed on light crude oil, known as condensate, which the Government unveiled in its first Budget in May".

And yet yesterday it was reported here (not on the West mind you) that Woodside Petroleum had recorded record profits: "Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second largest oil and gas producer, has achieved a significant jump in first half profit, driven by high oil prices and a stronger production performance.The Perth-based company posted a first half net profit of $1.016 billion, 67% higher than the $610.1 million reported in the corresponding period of 2007"

In my view it is obviously beyond time that our politicians got some backbone and stood up to multinational corporate giants like Woodside. Could this be a good indication of how much these multinational corporate giants actually care about the people of the State and Country they strip the recourses and make the profits from?