chris955

I hope you aren't including Australia, their economy is absolutely booming, there is no unemployment or inflation, everyone earns $100,000 and houses are cheap as chips. :-)

Zen10

The problem you have, Chris, is that whatever befalls Australia, it's going to be worse for Britain. Nothing can help that at the moment. The British economy is on life support right now. Australia will have difficulties, sure, but the UK is in a special league, closer to Greece and Spain and Ireland than Australia and Canada.

chris955

Look we all know that you think the economy here is on deaths door, I have no interest in trying to change your mind, it is irrelevant to me. I am here living it and yes I can see the problems but to compare the UK to Spain and Greece is idiotic at best BUT if you prefer to think that then fair enough. You are happy in Australia, just enjoy it.
Its not a 'problem I have' at all, we didn't want to stay in Australia and are happier here. Simple.

Zen10

I move between both countries and am happy in both countries. For me it's not a Vs issue. I must be honest with myself if I am to make sense of the facts, and on the economy Britain is, for now, screwed.

You are right to point out that the comparison between the UK and Spain/Greece is ridiculous because the UK is in much more debt than than either of them. 360% of GDP for Britain and only 84% for Spain and 174% for Greece. The UK also owes four times as much money to foreign creditors than Spain does and 17 times as much as Greece does.

chris955

That's fine, whatever makes you happy. I might wander down the pub later for a pint of cider, that makes me happy

Loch Lomond

I'm not sure about the Oil and Gas production. The UK produces more Oil and Gas than Australia, however Australia has very similar Oil reserves but substantially more Gas reserves than the UK. The problem Australia has is their is inadequate infrastructure in place to drill, complete and produce the gas wells.
Before I left Australia I attended several industry conferences and meetings on the gas reserves. What was evident very quickly was Service providers would not support the gas operators in Australia as the rig rates and margins are not there, bringing equipment in risks it being held captive in Australia at the expense of more profitable areas.
As an operator we looked at manufacturing the equipment, storage, production process etc ourselves but at that time the cost was prohibitive. That is the problem Australia has, in that Operators have signed up leases (for thousands of wells in some cases) without the means to produce. The penalties provided in the lease agreements are minimal, so operators won't sell on or give up a lease.
IIRC only Origin Energy has made good progress on gas production as it already had a fair bit of infrastructure available.
The North Sea is a mature oil production area, discoveries and reinstating shut in fields are still taking place but nothing as significant as the past (Enquest are bringing back online a field that had been "shut in" in the 80's, this will add 25000BOPD to their UK production).
Australia is trending down also, the Australian Northwest Shelf is very similar to the UK North - North Sea, with the Bass straits oil reserves being re-evaluated. A lot of the Oilfields in Australia have very short field lives, and are shut in after maybe 15 - 20 years.

Zen10

No it doesn't make me happy. who could be happy that their country is buggered? I have countless friends and of course family there - unemployed or being pissed about on never-ending temporary contracts, on anti-depressants because they're stuck in negative equity or their pensions have been stolen.

This does not make me happy. Seems to me you live in a bubble.

Zen10

Hi

Yes it's all about trends + units. UK has 3,084 million bbl proved oil reserves as of 2010 (just today North Sea output dropped harshly), these reserves have been dropping solidly since the spike in 2003. Australia has more reserves (just) at 3,318 million bbl as of 2010, but these reserves have been increasing since 2008. Critically,while the UK oil supplies are basically gone, Australia is the most under-explored continent for hydrocarbons. Not sure if the trend is down since 2010 but you imply that is the case.

Gas - Aus quantities dwarf UK quantities as you say. I know nothing about the technicalities of the industry so appreciate your post! I think overall I would suggest that between the UK and Australia, you would be crackers to bet on more resources being discovered in the former, especially when you consider Australia's largely untouched maritime territory. But like you say, getting it out and selling it is something else.

chris955

I certainly wouldn't be happy thinking my country was buggered, luckily I don't.

eddie007

'ere... Chris... You know those REALLY annoying peeps that wear rose tinted sunnies, live in perf and think that lifeis pretty damned sweetfor them...

Well you are the uk equivilant... Only worse

chris955

Seriously I couldnt really care less what some people on an anonymous internet forum think of me, if it makes you happy go for it, honestly

rugbymatt

In 2008 everyone on this forum told me that the UK would be doomed within 5 years, here we are half way through the 4th year and so far so good, yeah we have problems but every country in Europe has and we are in a much better position than many to get out of the crap. I will reserve my panic until 2015, thats when I personally think we will finally emerge from this mess, until then I'll just keep swimming.......

chris955

Exactly, I keep getting told the UK economy has collapsed, is worse than Greece, is past fixing blah blah blah but if I say I'm not seeing it I am living in a bubble. To be honest if people choose to believe it then its up to them.

rugbymatt

I don't ever believe any of it, its all media hogwash and its people listening to it that makes then cling on to their money like Jews (I'm Jewish, I'm allowed to say that)

I rarely read the papers, rarely follow the news (except to wind friends up) and could honestly not care what crap they try to sell us. Personally I welcome a world wide crash, we all live beyond our means, all live on the never never and have all bought into the myth of plenty. Any animal that discards more food than it eats deserves the crap storm on its way. Live the life you imagined, nothing else matters.

louie

Or maybe you just have unlucky friends and family. Don't tar the whole country with the same brush. Where I live, all is well. I can only think of one person in my circle of friends and family who has suffered in the recession and that because he chose to give up a secure job to go into full time education. Took a while to get a job when he finished but he got there in the end.

Whilst I've no doubt there are people struggling, there are very many people, myself included, who have never had it so good, not least because mortgage interest rates are so low we have much more disposable income than ever before.

I'm still planning to scratch the itch that is the move to Australia, but I can't say that the associated serious drop in income doesn't worry me.