Today’s petroleum industry

As the world energy reported that during 2005, petroleum fossil fuels met about 80 per cent of the world’s demand for transportation fuels and nearly half the world’s primary energy demand. Petrol, diesel, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and CNG (compressed natural gas) are the most common petroleum products used in cars, trucks, trains and buses. In many parts of the world, petroleum fuels are used in power stations to generate electricity for industries and for providing heating and air conditioning needs. Kerosene and LPG are bottled and used in homes in some parts of the world for cooking and heating.
Petroleum and natural gas are Australia’s two most valuable resource exports. Crude oil accounted for about 35 per cent of Australia’s primary energy consumption in 2004/2005, according to The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Natural gas sources filled 19 per cent of primary energy needs in Australia. Western Australia has risen to prominence as Australia’s leading oil-producing state. In 2005, Western Australia had 67 producing oil fields and led the nation in gas and LNG (liquefied natural gas) production. Petroleum (crude oil, condensate and natural gas) had become the leading contributor to the state’s resources sector. Crude oil and condensate production averaged 0.052 gigalitres per day (328,000 barrels per day). Average gas production was 0.072 giga cubic metres per day. Petroleum products accounted for more than one third of the value of WA’s mineral and energy production.
However, the oil and gas industry is at the cusp of significant change, with a number of countries believed to have passed their oil production peak, signalling an impending tightening of supply in the coming decades. While no-one is certain, some believe that at our present rate of consumption, the world has around 50 years of crude oil and more than 70 years of natural gas reserves. In recent decades, Australia has been around 80% to 85% net self-sufficient in oil, but this will fall to around 50% by 2020, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The Western Australian Office of Energy predicts that our state’s crude oil and condensate will sustain a further 25 years’ consumption at current production levels.

Large regions that are offshore Australia remain lightly explored, so there is a real chance of finding a new petroleum province. While some experts predict an imminent world oil shortage, other researchers say that significant, new oil fields will be discovered, particularly in Russia, the Caspian, Brazil, Angola and Canada.
New energy opportunities:

“Oil shale”, an “unconventional” oil source, presents opportunities to supply some of the fossil energy needs of the world in the years ahead. Most oil shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that yield substantial quantities of oil by heating and distillation. One tonne of oil shale contains more than 200 litres of oil. Total world resources of oil shale are conservatively estimated at 2.6 trillion barrels.
Australia has significantly large deposits of “proved oil shale in place”. In 1802, a French world scientific expedition discovered oil shale in New South Wales near the Blue Mountains. In 2005 it was estimated that there were 29 million barrels of oil shale economic demonstrated resources in Australia.
lso, there are other solutions to Australia’s problem of depleting transport fuels such as diesel oil. Importantly, international energy companies are exploring options to directly convert Australia’s abundant natural gas reserves into clean, non-polluting liquids, in the form of diesel or aviation fuels. This process is known as “Gas to Liquid”, or GTL.

The development of the Australian oil industry:
The first drilling carried out for the purpose of discovering oil was in the Coorong area of South Australia in 1892. Unfortunately, the shallow hole was dry. Later in 1900, the first petroleum discovery was made near Roma, Queensland, when a water bore intersected a natural gas field. Offshore, the first oil well was drilled in the Albany harbour in Western Australia in 1907. Australia’s first oil field was discovered at Lake Bunga near Lakes Entrance in the Gippsland Basin in 1924.

However, Australia’s commercial petroleum industry did not really commence until 1953. In November of that year, much excitement was generated by the discovery of oil at Rough Range in Western Australia. The discovery was made by West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd (a joint venture between Ampol and Caltex) which began producing 550 barrels per day (a barrel contains about 160 litres) at Rough Range. Commercial production of petroleum on a large scale began on the Moonie oil field in Queensland in 1964. The search for petroleum intensified with widespread exploration and discoveries around Australia. One of the more notable finds included Barrow Island in the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia, in 1964. Despite around 900 wells being drilled on Barrow Island, it has remained an “A” Class nature reserve.
The main petroleum discovery was made in the North West Shelf, located between 125 and 150 kilometres northwest of Dampier, Western Australia, in 1971. The North West Shelf (NWS) project has become Australia’s largest resource development. Operated by Woodside Offshore Petroleum, the NWS project consists of two major phases:
• The domestic gas phase, which supplies gas to Western Australia’s domestic market.
• The liquid natural gas (LNG phase), which supplies LNG for export primarily to Japan with other sales to the USA and Korea.
The NWS project also produces crude oil from the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermea oil and gas fields, about 30 kilometres northeast of North Rankin. During the 2004 financial year, the NWS project produced 36.9 million barrels of crude oil, 36.9 million barrels of condensate, 186 billion cubic feet of domestic gas, 8.0 million tonnes of LNG and 744,600 tonnes of LPG. For more information about natural gas and the North West Shelf Project.

Western Australia’s Griffin oil and gas project commenced in 1994 at the Carnarvon Basin, some 68 kilometres offshore from Onslow. The Griffin operator is BHP Billiton Petroleum. During the 2005 financial year, the project produced 3.9 million barrels of crude oil and 5.95 billion standard cubic feet of gas sales.

A new oilfield was discovered in 2003 on the offshore North West Cape near Exmouth. The new Stybarrow oilfield is jointly owned by BHP Billiton and Woodside, with BHP Billiton the operator. It is Australia’s deepest oil field development, with a water depth of about 825 metres. Stybarrow is expected to process about 80,000 barrels of liquids a day. First production is planned for the first quarter of 2008.

http://www.worldofenergy.com.au/factsheet_petroleum/07_fact_petroleum_refining.html