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 is a net importer of oil and imports a large proportion of its refinery feedstocks. Most of Australia's oil is produced on the North West Shelf, some distance from domestic east coast refining capacity.
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. Most of our imported petrol comes from Asia, with around 25 per cent of it coming from Singapore.
Domestic crude production has been in decline for some time and Australia does not produce enough compatible crude oil to run existing domestic refineries. Most crude oil production is located long distances from Australian refineries and has better transport proximity to key Asian markets.
Australia's 2P reserves of conventional oil resources in 2020 are estimated as 9,300 petajoules (PJ; 1,632 million barrels [MMbbl]). At 2020 production rates, this is the equivalent of about 12 years of remaining conventional oil reserves. Nearly 80 per cent of Australia's produced oil was exported in 2020.
Venezuela has the largest amount of oil reserves in the world with more than 300 billion barrels in reserve. Saudi Arabia has the second-largest amount of oil reserves in the world with 297.5 billion barrels.
Venezuela is currently the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 300 billion barrels of oil.
New Zealand's oil and gas industry is built on the back of early exploration and development dating back to the 1950s. The modern industry in New Zealand has a well-developed oil and gas infrastructure and a proactive globally-competitive oil and gas regime.
The UK's petroleum reserves remain at a significant level. The NSTA's estimate for proven and probable (2P) UKCS reserves as at end 2021 is 4.0 billion boe, 0.4bn boe lower than as at end 2020.
We currently consume around 578,000,000 barrels of oil per year. The North Sea has proven oil reserves of 2,754,685,000 barrels, meaning we would eat through its reserves in around five years if we relied solely on them! To make sure this doesn't happen, the UK has to rely on the aforementioned imports.
The research finds that Australia's transport fuels are highly vulnerable to international prices and supply chains and yet demand-side solutions, particularly the electrification of transportation, have been ignored. Key Findings: Australia is reliant on imports for around 91% of fuel consumption.
The prospect of nuclear power in Australia has been a topic of public debate since the 1950s. Australia has one nuclear plant in Lucas Heights, Sydney, but is not used to produce nuclear power, but instead is used to produce medical radioisotopes.
Individuals income tax. Individuals' income tax is the single most important source of government revenue. Since the mid 1970s it has consistently raised around half of the Australian Government's tax receipts and continues to be a stable and predictable source of revenue.
The United Kingdom has proven reserves equivalent to 4.8 times its annual consumption. This means that, without imports, there would be about 5 years of oil left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).
Offsetting the relatively lower diversity score for crude oil, the UK could have met over 90 per cent of crude consumption via indigenous production and ranks strongly amongst OECD countries for self-sufficiency. The UK more than meets its needs for petrol from indigenous production.
Oil Reserves in Australia
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).
About 98% of oil consumed in Germany is imported. In 2021, Russia supplied 34.1% of crude oil imports, the US 12.5%, Kazakhstan 9.8% and Norway 9.6%. Germany is also the world's largest importer of natural gas, which covered more than a quarter of primary energy consumption in Germany in 2021.
Scotland is thought to be the largest producer of oil and the second largest producer of gas in Europe. The oil and gas industry currently supports around 196,000 jobs in Scotland.
The Norwegian and British sectors hold most of the large oil reserves. It is estimated that the Norwegian sector alone contains 54% of the sea's oil reserves and 45% of its gas reserves. More than half of the North Sea oil reserves have been extracted, according to official sources in both Norway and the UK.
Oil. An Irish oil exploration company called Providence Resources announced in July 2012 that it had discovered a field with in excess of 1 billion barrels of oil at the Barryroe oil well, 70 km from the coast of County Cork.
Oil and gas exploration activity began offshore in Ireland in the early 1970s. To date, success has been limited to four commercial natural gas discoveries; namely the Kinsale Head, Ballycotton and Seven Heads gas fields off the coast of Cork and the Corrib gas field off the coast of Mayo.
The National Oil Reserves Agency holds about 72% of its oil stocks in Ireland, and the balance abroad. In Ireland stocks are held in some of the above oil storage facilities including Dublin, Cork (Whitegate Refinery), Whiddy Island (Bantry Bay), Foynes, Shannon, Tarbert (power station), and Galway.
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).
Food and water. More than 70% of Venezuela's food is imported; Venezuela became so dependent on food imports that it could no longer afford when the price of oil dropped in 2014. Chávez gave the military control of food, and nationalized much of the industry, which was then neglected, leading to production shortages.