Australia has significant undiscovered unconventional oil resources potential, including shale oil, tight oil, basin centred oil and oil shale. Oil shale is the only unconventional oil resource that has been exploited to date. Currently, there is no commercial production of oil shale resources in Australia.
“We currently produce per day an estimate of 350,000 barrels per day. We use about a million, so there's a shortfall of two-thirds,” he said. “There's an estimate that Australia has known reserves – so there could be stuff we don't know about – of about a billion barrels, which is about a thousand days' worth.
Australia has proven reserves equivalent to 2.9 times its annual consumption. This means that, without imports, there would be about 3 years of oil left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).
At the end of 2020, Australia had 2.4 billion barrels worth of oil reserves as opposed to 3.8 billion barrels in 2010. This was the lowest worth of oil reserves in the nation since 2010.
Thanks to the shale oil boom, the US is now sitting on more oil reserves than Russia, which estimates as having 256 billion barrels of untapped oil. The next-richest countries in terms of oil after that are: Saud Arabia (212 billion), Canada (167 billion), Iran (143 billion) and Brazil (120 billion).
Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada are the three leading countries with the most oil reserves. Industry leader BP plc estimates that there are 1.73 trillion barrels of oil reserves globally. Approximately 80% of the world's oil reserves are in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
World Oil Reserves
The world has proven reserves equivalent to 46.6 times its annual consumption levels. This means it has about 47 years of oil left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).
A growing gap between domestic consumption and production has made Australia's dependence on oil imports increase. Therefore, despite having its own oil reserves and exporting some petroleum liquids, Australia is a net importer of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
Jackson oil field is the largest onshore oil field in Australia. It is in Durham, Shire of Bulloo in southwestern Queensland, approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) west of Thargomindah. Jackson oil plant is an oil processing facility near the field.
Australia has about 0.3 per cent of the world oil reserves. Most of Australia's known remaining oil resources are condensate and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) associated with giant offshore gas fields in the Browse, Carnarvon and Bonaparte basins.
Australia offers none of the capital or operating cost benefits available in many developing countries. Compared to refineries across Asia, Australian refineries suffer from substantial disadvantages in operating and capital costs that preclude Australia from consideration for major new refinery projects.
As a leading world energy city, Perth has the largest concentration of global oil and gas companies, and oil service companies in Australia; including Apache Corporation, BHP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell Australia, Santos, INPEX and Woodside Energy.
Australia relies on imports - about 90 per cent - for the majority of its petrol supply. We do produce some crude oil domestically - about 350 barrels per day - however, the majority of this is exported.
Australia's 2P reserves of conventional oil resources in 2019 are estimated as 10,263 petajoules (PJ; 1,803 million barrels [MMbbl]). At 2019 production rates, this is the equivalent of about 14 years of remaining conventional oil reserves.
In Australia up to 100 offshore wells per year are drilled.
Generally the range we are talking about spans from a fifth of an acre to 10 acres. Perhaps the reason for such a scope of land area requirement is due to the question containing many variables. As hinted at above, a plant based diet requires less land for self-sufficiency than a meat based diet.
The United States has the world's largest reported strategic petroleum reserve, with a total capacity of 727 million barrels. If completely filled, the U.S. SPR could theoretically replace about 60 days of oil imports.
The world's largest oil field, Saudi Arabia's Ghawar Field, for instance, produces around 4 million barrels of oil per day, accounting for well over 1/3 of Saudi Arabia's total production.
Venezuela is currently the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 300 billion barrels of oil.
There has been oil and gas activity in New Zealand for more than 150 years.
The Minimum Stockholding Obligation will require Australia's two refineries in Geelong and Brisbane, and Australia's major importers of refined fuels, to hold baseline stocks of: petrol – 24 days from 1 July 2023. Increasing to 27 days in 2024 for importers. diesel fuel – 20 days from 1 July 2023.
Australian closures leaves just two refineries
This followed news in November of BP closing and converting the Kwinana refinery in Western Australia into a fuel import terminal. These two closures leave just two refineries in Australia.
Global consumption of oil is currently estimated at roughly 96.5 million barrels per day. According to OPEC, global demand is expected to reach 109 million barrels per day. Estimations vary slightly, but it is predicted that - if demand forecasts hold - we will run out of oil from known reserves in about 47 years.
Without oil, cars may become a relic of the past. Streets may turn into public community centers and green spaces filled with pedestrians. Bike use might increase as more people ride to school or work. The Earth will begin to heal from over a century of human-caused climate change.