Cheap oil - time to buy up big Australia

[Member-Deleted]

Food for thought... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-22/ ... y/12170390


"As a nation dependent upon imported liquid fuel for more than 90 per cent of our refined fuel needs, a glut of cheap oil is a bonanza.

Australia's four oil refiners only produce a small portion of our liquid fuel needs which means the rest has to come from the Middle East and Asia. Singapore currently supplies about 51 per cent of our liquid fuel as it is an important logistics centre for crude oil trade.

Buying up big right now would allow us to significantly improve our stockpile and potentially reach compliance with our obligations, as a member of the International Energy Agency.

As a member of the IEA we are required to maintain net stocks equivalent to 90 days of liquid fuel. Australia is currently in breach of that obligation.

The recent liquid fuel security review conducted by the Department of Environment and Energy in April, 2019 indicated that Australia has a current reserve of 18 days of petrol, 22 days of diesel and 23 days of jet fuel. These low fuel reserves put us at significant risk.
The most obvious is that our dwindling stockpile makes us highly dependent upon international supply chains.

As the COVID-19 crisis has so clearly highlighted, this type of dependency makes us vulnerable. If there was a disruption our dwindling reserves at home would not last very long.

A sustained disruption in the international supply chain means Australia may face the very real prospect of running out of fuel.

This would be catastrophic and would fundamentally undermine civil society. In its last liquid fuel security report, the government committed to rebuilding our fuel stockpile by 2026."

Now is the time, not by 2026. Will the Commonwealth Government do anything about it now though? yeah, nah... she'll be right

[Blr243]

I’m a fair bit unemployed at the moment due to covid but now a tank in my hilux lasts me a month instead of a week it’s sort of great

[TassieTiger]

Whilst I agree it’s an opportunity and we have to find a solution to oil - the Aust govt has already committed billions of dollars elsewhere...

[Member-Deleted]

sadly TT you're right and it is not a bottomless pit of OUR money that they have available to spend, so it's being put to other good uses right now...

what gives me the irrits is that for decades successive governments, of both colours, have ignored this problem, in the belief that she'll be right... to date, it has been ok but that's good luck not good management.

[TassieTiger]

You only have to look at how far the USA is willing to go for oil - to keep things moving...luckily, fracking has completely turned their situation around...for now.
The big petroleum cos don’t care - the longer they have to hold product - the more $$$ it costs them.

If Australia ran low on oil? Haha...forget lock down CV type anarchy...s**t would get very real, very quickly.

[scoot]

Max won't be able to run the interceptor. We'd all fall prey to the toe cutter, kondilini and the rest of the two wheeled henchmen.

[No1Mk3]

Due to Government malfeasance and short-sightedness, both Labour & Liberal, we no longer have the storage capacity to maintain a crude reserve of any note, over 100 tanks have been removed from the Melbourne - Geelong - Westernport areas in the last 10 years let alone what has been removed from other States. The same "we'll just get it processed elsewhere" attitude has seen our production capacity slashed to virtually nothing of any real level. Only last year the cat-cracker in Altona was removed entirely. I sadly don't feel our system will learn the lesson that we NEED some independant manufacturing of essential goods. I once worked for the last company in Australia that made canning machinery, we were listed as an essential industry in case of war or serious public disruption but Howard removed that protection from a number of industries and decided to import everything we once made in that field, so we cannot even can our produce if we were cut off from international trade.

[Oldbloke]

"so we cannot even can our produce if we were cut off from international trade."

Not strictly correct. There is at least 1 cannery at Shepparton vic. But need more than 1

[Member-Deleted]

only 18 days of petrol, & 22 days worth of diesel stockpiled for the nation. people acted dumb and panicky over toilet paper [which we make here, for chrissake]

We produce more than enough food here in Oz. But if shipping lanes are closed off, for one reason or another, and our imports of POL stop, how are trucks and trains going to move that food from the farms to the factories to the supermarkets around the country without fuel after 3 weeks?

if that happens Scoot you're going to wish you had an Interceptor

[Blr243]

I don’t think life in Australia will ever be the same for me if max can’t afford to run the interceptor ......imagine the opening scene of mad max5 and he’s driving a sleek low white Ferrari shaped machine all covered in solar panels cruising along at 32 kilometres per hour with windows wound up to reduce drag, no dust or pipes and we won’t even be able to see his dog !

[Stix]

Due to Government malfeasance and short-sightedness, both Labour & Liberal, we no longer have the storage capacity to maintain a crude reserve of any note, over 100 tanks have been removed from the Melbourne - Geelong - Westernport areas in the last 10 years let alone what has been removed from other States. The same "we'll just get it processed elsewhere" attitude has seen our production capacity slashed to virtually nothing of any real level. Only last year the cat-cracker in Altona was removed entirely. I sadly don't feel our system will learn the lesson that we NEED some independant manufacturing of essential goods. I once worked for the last company in Australia that made canning machinery, we were listed as an essential industry in case of war or serious public disruption but Howard removed that protection from a number of industries and decided to import everything we once made in that field, so we cannot even can our produce if we were cut off from international trade.

Dunno why you seem so against this countrys Govts have done what they've done with oil storage & our self sufficiency No1...
Over here we put a de-sal plant where our refinery was...thats cost,& will continue to cost stupid amounts of unnecessay money, & acheives little if anything--unless screwing the fishery in our gulf is a goal ofcourse...
You live in the dark ages of doing the sensible thing by way of looking to the future...you need to get with the current program of intelligence & high tech ways of governing that put a popularist slant on a slow form of self destruction...
___
In other words....
... ...

[Member-Deleted]

yeah No1, Stix is right, get with the program...

[Member-Deleted]

FROM ABC REPORTS:
Federal Government to spend $94 million stockpiling fuel in the US
Updated 5 minutes ago

The Federal Government will spend $94 million on a fuel reserve to bolster the national stockpile.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the Government would take advantage of historically low fuel prices to build a "strategic fuel reserve", to be held initially in the United States.

"We have full storages here in Australia, but in time we are exploring opportunities with the industry to establish local storage," he said.

"Now is the time to buy fuel, and we are doing that."

Mr Taylor said the reserve was to ensure Australia had enough fuel in case of future "global disruptions".

[Member-Deleted]

I'll gladly admit it, my low expectations of government were wrong, and they have seen the light [or at least the opportunity] to remedy a national problem.

Of course, it will be stored in the US, not here, so that still presents a problem. As No1 said, we have short-sightedly reduced our ability to store for our needs onshore

[TassieTiger]

Stored in the US? What the actual F ? It costs roughly $9 per barrel on average, for shipping from Us to Au. In this climate - savings are lost...
How hard would it be to buy some ole rain water tanks lol.

[Stix]

I priced jerry cans yesterday...thinking ill extend my fuel reserve for shooting trips...

Theyve nearly doubled in price from the last ones i got on special from bcf for $20 each couple years ago...

[sungazer]

Especially if we buy that crude oil from the US the actually have a negative price per barrrel. I wonder if that would work in reality? That they actually pay you to take the crude oil away from them. Even getting it for free would be good. It would be the best investment that the government could ever make. Buy or get given the Natural resource free or plus cash to pay for freight. Then to process here in Aus giving our nation jobs. The total reverse of what Australia has been doing for the past several decades.

[Oldbloke]

I priced jerry cans yesterday...thinking ill extend my fuel reserve for shooting trips...

Theyve nearly doubled in price from the last ones i got on special from bcf for $20 each couple years ago...

What else should we expect. Rule 1 of all business is:

Charge as much as the customer will bear

[Blr243]

I looked at buying more Gerry cans as well , so When travel bans are eased I can hunt with minimum people contact .. and yes they are expensive at the moment........trying to do the right thing ....... rather than just do as we are told to prevent getting fined , it actually feels really good to be trying to do better, and safer , and more responsible than what is being asked of us. .... even though it’s hurting me financially, I’m much happier to endure restrictions for a while because I want our population to be healthy

[AussieCapitalist]

You guys forgetting gold? So many countries store their gold in America. Germany and the UK asked to see their gold to take a stocktake and they said no. Took Poland years of begging to get a small percentage of their gold taken out of the vaults in New York. The rumours are that a lot of the vaults are empty and America does not even have the amount of gold it says it does. We have plenty of land mass in this country to store oil. I don't see why they cant store it here?

IF YOU CANT TOUCH IT YOU DONT OWN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TassieTiger]

How much does 94 million dollars get you ? 5 days worth...
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-04- ... e/12177060

[Sergeant Hartman]

Yep and takes weeks to get here.... but more importantly we only have 3 refineries after may.... we are doomed... where is my electric push bike