Skip to main content

Energy supply security: Australia

Hydrocarbon Engineering,


Overview

  • In 2012, oil and gas in Australia accounted for 59% of total primary energy supply.
  • Domestic natural gas production more than satisfies the country’s demand and will do for the foreseeable future.
  • Australia does not impose minimum stock holding requirements on oil companies and there are no public stocks.
  • Emergency policy relies on the domestic market to respond to supply short falls in the first instance.
  • In a declared state of emergency, the government does have legislative power to control the storage, transfer, sale and production of liquid fuels.

Oil

  • Most crude oils are of a high quality, light and sweet grade.
  • Australia produces NGLs in the form of naturally occurring LPG.
  • Crude oil and condensate production peaked in 2000 at 687 000 bpd.
  • To 2050, NGL and crude oil production is projected to decrease at an average rate of 3.8% /y.
  • To 2050, consumption of petroleum products is expected to grow at an average rate of 1.1% /y.
  • In 2012, oil demand averaged 1.126 million bpd.
  • In 2010, diesel surpassed gasoline as the largest single component of the country’s total oil demand.
  • In 2012, net oil imports averaged 646 000 bpd.
  • There are six refineries in Australia with a total crude distillation capacity of 680 000 bpd.
  • All oil storage capacity is held commercially within the supply chain.
  • The Minister for Industry is responsible for coordinating emergency response in the event of an oil supply disruption.
  • Australia held approximately 39 million bbls of oil stock at the end of April 2013.
  • The potential for reducing oil use through fuel switching in heat and power plants is limited.

Gas

  • In 2012, total natural gas production was 53.9 billion m3.
  • By 2018, total production is expected to exceed 140 billion m3.
  • In 2012, domestic gas consumption totalled approximately 48.7 billion m3.
  • By 2018, natural gas demand is expected to hit 55 billion m3.
  • Australia is a net exporter of natural gas and all exports are sent as LNG.
  • There are 150 gas companies active in Australia.
  • There are three LNG terminals currently in operation in the country.
  • Australia has four underground natural gas storage facilities operating and one LNG peak shaving plant.
  • There are no strategic stocks of natural gas in Australia.
  • There are no policies to promote fuel switching away from natural gas in an emergency.

Adapted by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/14072014/energy_security_supply_australia/

You might also like

The Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast - Travelling towards sustainability: exploring the economics of e-fuels

In this special episode, a panel of experts from Johnson Matthey, A.P. Moller - Maersk, Honeywell, HIF Global and the Methanol Institute provide a clear analysis of the factors influencing e-fuel pricing, the economic challenges, and strategies for cost reduction.

Tune in to the Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast on your favourite podcast app today.

Apple Podcasts  Spotify Podcasts  YouTube

 
 

Embed article link: (copy the HTML code below):