[Graeme]

Australia Has Decade of Oil Left at Current Rates

Australia's oil resources may last a decade at current production rates, making supply security a ``major concern,'' said energy minister Martin Ferguson.

Australia will review all oil and gas leases granted to explorers for their ``commerciality,'' Ferguson said today at a conference in Darwin. Oil and gas field permit holders must work the fields if they can be profitably developed, he said.

The nation's spending on exploration jumped 57 percent last year to a record A$2.66 billion ($2.6 billion) even as the number of wells drilled fell because equipment and labor shortages drove up costs. Explorers need to boost work in frontier areas to avoid a A$28 billion petroleum trade-deficit within a decade, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association said in April.

bloomberg

[Micki]

I see....sigh....
I knew of course that Oz already passed the peak some years ago, but just a decade left sound depressing.
Also sounds as if investing in oil companies may be risky in the coming years. Really need to sort out which ones have descent reserves.

LNG is at least a saving grace. With a bit of luck we won't export it all.

Wonder when LNG conversion kits will be avaialble for motorcycles and boats.

[alokin]

Would it be possible that Mr Ferguson tap an easy cheap source of oil- oil saving?? At least in this article it is even not mentioned that it could be a slight possibility that fat mums don't drive their overweight kids to school and back in over sized cars. Maybe he could get a grant from heart foundation.
(nothing against round people, but the abuse of cars has visible consequences)

[essex]

A friend of mine whose son works for Exxon and runs offshore oil rigs told me last year that his son was part of a group who calculated that OZ had only 10 years of oil left - so this confirms what I was told.

[mos6507]

Which means less than a decade since consumption never just stays "at current rates".

[Graeme]

Inpex Says Costs, Carbon Trading Key Risks for LNG

Inpex Holdings Inc., operator of a proposed A$12 billion ($11.7 billion) Australian liquefied natural gas venture, said ``breathtaking'' costs and planned carbon trading pose risks to LNG project development in the country.

The number of minerals and energy projects under way in Australia means access to labor and resources is ``hyper- competitive,'' Sean Kildare, general manager of external affairs at the Japanese company's Inpex Browse unit, said today in Darwin. It's too early to say whether the government's proposed emissions trading system threatens to derail the company's Ichthys project, he said. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Rio Tinto Group and competitors are developing a record A$70.5 billion of minerals and energy projects in Australia to meet growing demand, the government's commodity forecaster said in May. The government on July 16 outlined a carbon trading system to start up in 2010, without specifying whether LNG producers would be compensated for the extra cost.

bloomberg

[Peleg]

Inpex Says Costs, Carbon Trading Key Risks for LNG

Inpex Holdings Inc., operator of a proposed A$12 billion ($11.7 billion) Australian liquefied natural gas venture, said ``breathtaking'' costs and planned carbon trading pose risks to LNG project development in the country.

The number of minerals and energy projects under way in Australia means access to labor and resources is ``hyper- competitive,'' Sean Kildare, general manager of external affairs at the Japanese company's Inpex Browse unit, said today in Darwin. It's too early to say whether the government's proposed emissions trading system threatens to derail the company's Ichthys project, he said. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Rio Tinto Group and competitors are developing a record A$70.5 billion of minerals and energy projects in Australia to meet growing demand, the government's commodity forecaster said in May. The government on July 16 outlined a carbon trading system to start up in 2010, without specifying whether LNG producers would be compensated for the extra cost.

bloomberg

Come on Mate! For a million quid I'll move to Australia and solve your energy problem for you. Every country has to start thinking and acting as if they intend to be self sufficient when it comes to energy production, what ever is left over goes into global trade. We have to get the new foundation upon which a new global trade can be birthed (admitting it will probably look nothing like the current paradigm.) That means Australia has to go full scale and all out to implement solar for itself in the next ten years. If that drives up prices and the government is in debt up to it's eyeballs for thirty years what will that mean when you are getting 45% of your needs from solar to electricity to hydrogen. We have to think big and we are going to have to go into debt to get big done. But that big debt will create jobs and bolster the economies of many nations and therefore the pillars of a common earth.

http://www.solarharvest.com.au/

Keep building on things like this until the rivelet becomes the truest river in the country.

[Graeme]

Australian oil production has peaked: report

Oil production in Australia has already peaked and the alternative fuels industry needs to be dramatically ramped up in response, an expert research group says.

After years of a stop-start approach to ethanol production, Australia is fast running out of time to end its love affair with crude oil, much of which is imported, the NRMA Motoring funded Jamison Group says.

"Oil production in Australia has already peaked,'' the group's report, A Roadmap for Alternative Fuels in Australia, warns.

"Meanwhile, Australia's demand for petroleum is increasing at a rate of two per cent a year, from 750,000 barrels per day currently to 800,000 barrels by 2009/10.''

The domestic arrival of peak oil means more and more crude will be imported from the Middle East.

One of the researchers, former CSIRO automotive expert David Lamb, passionately called for change.

smh