Australia’s oil reserves are mostly located offshore of the northwestern and southeastern parts of the country. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Australia had proved oil reserves of 4.157 billion barrels at the end of 2007. The two largest areas with petroleum reserves are the Bass Strait off southern Australia, with 1.8 billion barrels, and the Carnarvon Basin off Western Australia, with 1.1 billion barrels.
Australia is an energy resource-rich country with significant petroleum, natural gas and coal reserves. Australia’s energy consumption is dominated by coal, which fuels most of the country’s power generation. Petroleum also accounts for a large share of energy consumption. Natural gas use is relatively small, but it has been growing rapidly in recent years. As a result of expanding consumption in a period of declining production, Australia is facing growing dependence on petroleum imports.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Australia produced an average of 560.8 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2007 and consumed an average of 934.92 thousand barrels a day. The Australian government expects petroleum import dependency to increase to around 80 percent by 2010. Australia imports most of its crude oil from the UAE, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea.
Australia has a well-developed oil and natural gas pipeline network. The Australian Pipeline Trust, with 4,350 miles of pipeline, is the largest operator.
Australia has seven major refineries, and, according to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, had a 2007 refinery capacity of 693.8 thousand barrels a day.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Australia had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 2.51 trillion cubic metres, 1.41% of the world total. Reserves are located in all of Australia’s states except New South Wales and Tasmania. Australia had 2007 natural gas production of 39.95 billion cubic metres and consumption of 25.14 billion cubic metres. Australia is the fifth largest exporter of LNG.
The Australian government has no ownership stake in the domestic natural gas industry, which is regulated by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Resources (MITR) and the Ministerial Council of Energy (MCE).
