He writes in The Australian today:
When it comes to our energy supplies, Australians have been well served and we continue to enjoy ample supply of electricity, gas and liquid fuel. Our fuel supply chains have proven to be resilient during the past 40 years, despite many disruptions. We produce fuel ourselves, and we import fuel from more than 70 countries, with no one source providing more than 20 per cent of our total petroleum products.
This supply chain resilience has meant that during the COVID-19 pandemic we have not faced shortages. However, with the significant drop in demand, our fuel sector is adapting. Our local refineries are working to much tighter margins but are finding ways to respond to COVID-19 impacts while keeping Australian motorists’ tanks full.
…But it is time to build our future capacity and the Morrison government has announced it will support this work with a three-part fuel security package. With a domestic focus, the package will underpin our economic prosperity for the next decade and beyond. It also will protect future jobs in our fuel-using industries such as our truckies, farmers, manufacturers and tradies.
First, we will establish Australia’s first government-owned oil reserves for domestic fuel security. We will boost our stockholdings by taking advantage of the historically low fuel prices. Put simply, the time to buy is now. Not only will we get the best value for our $94m investment, but we also will use our privileged position and access the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve when there is very limited cost-competitive, timely storage available across the world.
Second, we are committed to working with the private sector to develop options for more local storage as quickly as possible. If we could store fuel locally now, we would. In the meantime, we need to get more storage into place as we build our reserves at record low prices. A sustainable refining sector is central to this, and we are working closely with refiners to give them the best chance of sustainable ongoing operations. More local supply of crude oil will help, which is why the government is focused on opening up the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory.
A US-based oil reserve is 100% useless as a strategic oil reserve given any scenario in which is necessary will also close shipping lanes. Nor is Australian refining capacity doing anything but shrink:
And what about the price of energy, Angus? We have not been well-served by gas for the past five years as the east coast gas cartel rorted everybody and everything.
Moreover, cartel members, Origin and Santos, have always denied there is oil in the remote fields of NT fracking. The NT fracking enquiry dismissed the existence of oil.
This is just more confusion and bollocks from the Morrison Government’s absolute schmozzle of an energy policy. We now have:
- an agreed domestic reservation policy supposedly coming July 1 that will crash gas prices;
- public seed funding of completely uneconomic gas fields if 1 is true;
- a total waste of money, useless, far-distant oil reserve;
- a half-pregnant renewables transition dependent upon gas we don’t have, and
- a blood-sucking gas and oil cartel blowing smoke into policy at every turn, guaranteeing no chance of a manufacturing renaissance.
Honestly, you could not make more of a hash of this if you sat down and planned it.
Just as well energy isn’t the lifeblood of the modern economy and civilisation.
