Thread: FUEL REFINERIES GET A $2BILLION LIFE EXTENSION

Originally Posted by Rextheute

Isn’t it also due to the requirement to have the 10ppm sulphuric levels - and the refinery’s cannot current achieve this .
may / not move more transitions to EV ?
our infrastructure may not support this - that and pricing of vehicles .

I was involved with bringing BP Bulwer up to standard for ultra low sulphur diesel production, that is the only diesel produced in Australia.

Can’t see the difference between importing the raw product or the finished product to be honest.

Australia exports a heap of crude oil for refining overseas.

It was 16.91 thousand MEGALITRES in 2020

• Australia: export volume of crude oil 2020 | Statista

Australia exported in 2020 $8.49 Billion of crude oil and $49.73 Billion of Gas.

trade-investment-glance-2020.pdf (dfat.gov.au)

Imports of refined petroleum were $25billion in 2020.

So what is the todo about?

Apart from the obvious worry about fuel security , two way trade is a healthy thing. None of these stats include coal which is $69.52 Billion.
Pity that facts seem to overcome emotion.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by V8Ian

It's not quite that simple Gav. Ideally we are supposed to have 90 days reserve fuel, stored within the country, for security in case of war. I don't recall the details, mandate or law, or what types of fuels.
Should anything prevent fuel ships reaching our shores at present, we would be out of fuel in under a fortnight.
Should anything nation want to invade Australia, the most expedient method would be to bomb the Singaporean refineries. Within two weeks our Armed Forces would be all but crippled.
We have plenty of capped light crude wells in this country. Light crude is not the ideal raw material, but would do should we be denied imported crude, but retain the ability to refine fuel.
Interestingly, there is only one small, independent refinery close to the crude source, in this country, it refines mainly naphtha, a solvent that can be used as a petrol substitute.

What’s the difference in storing crude or the finished product? Why not just bring in the fuel ready to go?

Originally Posted by Homestar

What’s the difference in storing crude or the finished product? Why not just bring in the fuel ready to go?

If we have no means to refine, onshore and the supply line is broken, we're on our knees.
Should the supply of crude be interrupted, we can refine our own crude, as long as we have operational refineries.

When I was working out in the SW Qld Gasfields, I was told that after extensive tests with multiple filters and gradually reducing the filters , the whole vehicle fleet based in Jackson and Ballera were running on straight light crude , true distillate , unrefined with no apparent problem or concern from Toyota and other manufacturers.

I don't know if Neill Mansell ran it any of his trucks though.

I don't know if any of you have first hand knowledge of Australia's oil reserves , but we actually have plenty in the ground , much of it capped.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

If we have no means to refine, onshore and the supply line is broken, we're on our knees.
Should the supply of crude be interrupted, we can refine our own crude, as long as we have operational refineries.

We don't have any crude left in Aus. Currently importing 100% of our fuel crude...

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Our fuel security issues will continue until our transport shifts from imported oil to locally generated electricity, preferably renewable. Being independent improves national security.

We could also mandate E20 or E25 that would help our fuel security, environment, manufacturing and primary producers in one hit, but that would be just too hard and logical to do. More pointedly it wouldn't get any votes.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Can’t see the difference between importing the raw product or the finished product to be honest. If they aren’t competitive then they should close. There’s no fuel security either way - having them or not makes no difference..

As said by others, we do have crude available here, just not much and most of that is not the best for making fuel from. But apart from that you can get crude from a lot more places that you can get refined fuel from.

Originally Posted by Rextheute

Isn’t it also due to the requirement to have the 10ppm sulphuric levels - and the refinery’s cannot current achieve this .

Ampol in Brisbane can make 10ppm, it's just that they then burn the separated sulphur into the air to get rid of it.
BP were really good at making diesel in both Brisbane and Kwinana, I bet they are unimpressed by the rescue package.

Cheers Glen

Originally Posted by Dorian

We could also mandate E20 or E25 that would help our fuel security, environment, manufacturing and primary producers in one hit, but that would be just too hard and logical to do. More pointedly it wouldn't get any votes.



As said by others, we do have crude available here, just not much and most of that is not the best for making fuel from. But apart from that you can get crude from a lot more places that you can get refined fuel from.



Ampol in Brisbane can make 10ppm, it's just that they then burn the separated sulphur into the air to get rid of it.
BP were really good at making diesel in both Brisbane and Kwinana, I bet they are unimpressed by the rescue package.

Cheers Glen

Where’s the crude in this country? I work at both Refineries here in Melbourne and there’s none anywhere here and the Engineers who make the stuff say there’s no crude in Aus to make fuel from (one of them said there’s basically zero crude at all left in Aus for anything - we’ve used it all) so I still don’t see why we need to keep the refineries open when they aren’t making any fuel.

Happy to see sources that counter this but from my work at them and who I talk to (the people that make the stuff) there isn’t any in Aus.