Oil supplies set to decline

TOM IGGULDEN: When it comes to oil, Australia’s one of the lucky ones. We produce about two-thirds of the 700,000 barrels of oil we consume a day. But our luck may be running out. Australia used to produce about 80 per cent of its demand for oil. Today at a conference on the Gold Coast, it was predicted dependence on foreign oil is in for a dramatic increase.

BELINDA ROBINSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, APPEA: Australian petroleum liquids production declined 29 per cent since it peaked in 2000, and by 2015 our production will represent less than 30 per cent of our consumption. In the last year, no liquids finds in Australia exceeded 10,000 barrels. There are massive implications..

MATTHEW SIMMONS, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: We are now out of spare capacity. We used up every scrap of wellhead capacity, refinery capacity, refining capacity, tanker capacity, rig capacity, so now we are really stuck in a jam.

ABC Aus