By Jo Nova
Foreign readers may not be aware of the bunfight for petrol and especially diesel fuel in Australia. Three weeks in, and the energy and exporting giant of coal and gas is unraveling at the seams. Regional towns and some servo‘s are running out, farmers aren’t sure if they will be able to seed this year, and miners are starting to lay off staff. Three weeks.
It could be something to do with forward planning.
While the rest of the world has 90 days stockpile, Australia imports 90% of its oil, and has about three weeks fuel left. Obviously, our great leaders looked at our remote, low density island with an economy based on heavy industry and said “who needs diesel”?
David Archibald has spent 50 years around the oil industry and he has a plan
“There are no impediments to Australia becoming completely autarkic in liquids fuel production, and also petrochemical precursors and LPG, and ammonium sulphate for fertiliser.”
— David Archibald
The method as described in The Solution To Our Fuel Crisis has three main parts:
- Australia already produces oil as a byproduct of the North West gas production, but we ship it overseas. Instead we could refine it here and use it.
- We have discovered new oilfields off the NorthWest Shelf — Pavo and Dorado, and must get them producing “tomorrow”.
- We have plenty of coal on the East Coast that we could convert to liquid fuel via the Bergius process. He argues that it costs about $95 per barrel which is currently cheaper than oil.
It was not that long ago we produced three times as much diesel:
It’s amazing what fifteen years of climate fog can do to an industry…
Graph from Scott Ashton
David Archibald explains that climate change ideology killed off a perfectly good plant: “An unforced error”
There used to be an oil refinery run by BP at Kwinana, but that was closed in 2021. It had a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. It was running at a profit and didn’t need upgrading. At the time, BP was run by a bloke called Bernard Looney, who “became CEO in February 2020 and served until September 2023, during which time he spearheaded a strategic pivot toward renewable energy and set net-zero ambitions.” In effect, the Kwinana refinery was sacrificed on the altar of global warming. As a modern refinery with the ability to handle a range of crude types it would have a replacement cost approaching $6 billion. The WA and Federal Governments could have stopped the refinery’s closure but they both worship at the same altar of global warming. The nearest refinery is the Viva refinery in Geelong, 3,300 km to the east. …
His story symbolizes the whole downfall of Australian energy policy. We believed the hype on climate change and stopped thinking of fossil fuels as the motor of civilization. We stopped paying attention.
Our big states need a lot of diesel
Queensland and WA use half the national tally of 33 billion liters of diesel.
David Archibald says: 1. Use the oil we already have
The first thing to do to fix our fuel problem is to utilise the oil and condensate we are producing but not refining. Onshore and offshore, Western Australia produces 50,000 barrels of oil and 250,000 barrels of condensate per day. The condensate is a byproduct of gas production for the LNG plants 1,300 km north of Perth.
There used to be an oil refinery run by BP at Kwinana but that was closed in 2021. It had a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. It was running at a profit and didn’t need upgrading. At the time, BP was run by a bloke called Bernard Looney who “became CEO in February 2020 and served until September 2023, during which time he spearheaded a strategic pivot toward renewable energy and set net-zero ambitions.” In effect, the Kwinana refinery was sacrificed on the altar of global warming. As a modern refinery with the ability to handle a range of crude types it would have a replacement cost approaching $6 billion. The WA and Federal Governments could have stopped the refinery’s closure but they both worship at the same altar of global warming.
2. Open new oil fields:
The next thing to do to secure Australia’s fuel security will be to develop the Pavo oilfield which is located 100km off Port Hedland. This is a 109 million barrel oilfeld discovered in 2022.
The Pavo discovery was preceded by the Dorado discovery in 2018. This is a big field at 162 million barrels of oil (half of Australia’s annual consumption) with 748 BCF of gas…. initial production is still five years away at best.
Australia needs the Pavo oilfield online tomorrow. Pavo is a national security issue now. Pavo is a simple, uncomplicated development. It is in 88 metres of water and has a low gas to oil ratio.
3 .Turn the excess, bountiful coal we have into liquid fuel that we can pour into tanks, trucks and tractors:
The solution for the east coast is installing Bergius coal liquefaction plants.
There is plenty of coal that is too low grade for export, either due to ash content or water content, which would be ideal because it is next to worthless. There was a Japanese research Bergius plant in the Latrobe Valley which operated up to 1991. Victorian brown coal has a high reactivity and thus a low residence time. This Japanese effort determined a price hurdle of US$40 per barrel for development in 1991 dollars (oil was US$24 per barrel at the time). That equates to US$95.20 in 2026 dollars which is less than the current Brent price of US$102 per barrel. To quote a line from the movie Aliens, the readouts are all in the green. There are no impediments to Australia becoming completely autarkic in liquids fuel production, and also petrochemical precursors and LPG, and ammonium sulphate for fertiliser. Well, no impediments apart from the current State and Federal Governments. But those can be overcome by the will of the People once the People have suffered enough to get organised.
Archibald adds that Western Australia could use the Bergius coal process too:
When the oil and gas fields run out, as they will, liquids production can switch to applying the Bergius liquefaction process to the lignites that exist in a belt from Salmon Gums, north of Ravensthorpe, wrapping around the Yilgarn Craton towards the South Australian border.
A few details about converting coal to liquid fuel:
Coal liquification
The current diesel price in one of the better suburbs of Perth is $2.92 per litre which equates to $464 per barrel, which is US$325 per barrel.
The future is coal liquefaction by the Bergius process. That involve a lot of stainless steel because the Bergius reaction takes place at 300˚C, 250 atmospheres of pressure with hydrogen. Hydrogen causes embrittlement of carbon steel above 200˚C and so stainless steel needs to be used.
How it works is shown in this graphic from Bergius’ Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1931:
[The] addition of 5 kg of hydrogen to 100 kg of coal turns it from a low value solid into precious liquids. The hydrogen is made by steam reforming of part of the gas stream. Oil has a specific gravity close to 0.8 so 100 kg of coal converts to 81 kg of oil which has a volume of 100 litres. On that basis, one tonne of good quality coal will convert to 6.3 barrels of oil. Lignites, with a 40% water content, would produce 40% less.
How much stainless steel? A length of stainless steel pipe 50 metres long, 900 mm in diameter and with a wall thickness of 10 mm will allow a one hour residence time to produce 5,000 barrels per day. Learn to weld stainless steel. Everyone needs to do their part.
Read it all How to solve Australia’s fuel crisis.
David Archibald is also the author of The Anticancer Garden in Australia. He has had over 50 years in and out of the oil industry. His first oil industry role was as a juggie on a seismic crew in the Channel Country of far western Queensland in 1974.
Or you could electrify road transport
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How’s that going to work?
Elon Musk has been trying for years and cannot produce a commercially viable or useful prime mover (US = semi-tractor) for use in large countries like Australia or USA, maybe Europe with short distances.
If anyone could make a success of it, he would be able to do it.
And in Australia, where would the electricity come from once the power stations are fully closed down?
Once again, the Left demonstrate their profound disconnect from reality and basic science and engineering.
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I just saw my first Cypertruck on the road today. They are even uglier in real live than they are in pictures. I am amazed anyone would buy the things.
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you literally have no idea what you are talking about.
and nothing to go close to backing up such a ridiculous statement.
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Might as well electrify air transport too while we’re at it. 🙂
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Already tried with light aircraft including Perth to Kangaroo Island return and 4 seat aircraft, and just makes it with legal reserve intact
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It was Adelaide to Kangaroo Island. A bit of a difference!
The reality of commercial and freight planes flying long distance on just electricity is basically…. non reality.
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Perth to Rottnest Island return flight electric aircraft’
https://www.travelindustrytimes.com/article/877700504-australia-s-leading-electric-aircraft-operator-scales-air-taxi-services-to-rottnest-island
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Start with trains!
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Australia doesn’t have anywhere near the infrastructure needed to support a national fleet of light-duty consumer EVs. Not the charging stations, nor the power stations. It would take years/decades to build it out to support large-scale consumer adoption (just look at how few charging stations were built in the USA over the past 5 years with $7.5 billion from Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill).
https://evmagz.com/gao-fewer-than-400-ev-charging-ports-built-under-7-5-billion-u-s-infrastructure-program/
And as others have pointed out, light-duty consumer vehicles are only a part of the overall transportation sector. Large commercial vehicles, heavy equipment, boats/ships and airplanes are all poorly suited to electrical power.
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Or the essential local electricity grid capacity upgrading poles and wires, sub-stations and even properties for EV power points
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$7.5 billion from Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill.
I wonder how much of that $7,500 million went – rightfully, obviously – to well-connected ‘consultants ‘, ‘facilitators’, ‘intermediaries and sundry bag-carriers?
And if any of that found its way into re-election campaign coffers?
Auto
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Would need to convert every household to 3 Phase, build 30 odd nukes and a new grid. No problem just print a few trillion dollars.
Then there is the 50 odd years you need to do it in. Our governments have trouble with 50 days.
Last time I looked we are on the verge of bankruptcy in Victoria and 100,000 housing foreclosures are rolling next month in the middle of a diesel crisis.
China currently makes oil from coal at a rate of 450 MILLION tons of coal per annum as of yesterday.
They will get to 500Mt next year.
The problem is no-one trusts our government.
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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eIFNHjMgtII?feature=share
The fundamental problem with government!
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I understand that just one EV recharging at home requires the average household peak demand time supply
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But u get three hours 4 free!!!
Except the 3 Phase connection and capex.
Other than the A$10k per annum its freeeeeee!.
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Or do what the South African’s have been doing since 1950s
Sasol primarily uses the proprietary Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD™) process and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology to convert coal and natural gas into high-value synthetic fuels and chemicals. This process involves gasification, gas purification, and synthesis to produce synthetic fuels, diesel, and chemical feedstocks, specifically using netl.doe.gov iron-based catalysts for coal
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Fischer-Tropsch is far more efficient than the Bergius process and is very sensitive to the type of coal. This is all desperation last-resort stuff, especially when we are sitting on multiple renewable sources of energy.
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Best process is treating lignite with solvents. 1.1 BoE per 1 ton of lignite @US$28/barrel.
C6-C20 n-anes, n-enes & phenols.
Gasoline, diesel, avgas and soil conditioner.
We have been extracting phenols for 30 years.
The problem is the Labor Government.
No-one is going to invest money while Labor and the Greens have a heartbeat.
Trying to do renewable energy can only work if we use renewable power to make hydrocarbons.
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From a couple of years ago about the basic issues of making trucks electric. Not much has changed. From Friends of Science.
—
Andrew Boyle, first vice-chair of the American Trucking Associations, testified before a US Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on the future of clean vehicles. Electrification of transport trucks is unsuitable for the following reasons:
* Today, a diesel truck takes 15 minutes to refuel anywhere in the country, giving it a range of 1,200 miles before refueling again.
* Long-haul battery-electric trucks require up to 10 hours to recharge, for a range of 150-330 miles. So, to go 1,200 miles, a BEV truck needs to charge 4-8 times — assuming there are charge points where needed.
* Thus, far more trucks would be needed to haul the same amount of freight, with each electric truck costing $300,000 more than a diesel equivalent.
* Converting all the Class 8 trucks in the US would require a $1 trillion investment, which would flow to consumers, and for which the US would have to commandeer the global production of lithium for seven years.
* A battery for a heavy-duty truck weighs 8,000 lb., which means that much less payload since the maximum gross weight of the vehicle is fixed.
* Local electric utilities can’t handle the loads required for charging stations.
https://youtu.be/6VlYYM_KtFA
—
If you’re going to have swap batteries instead of re-charging then you’ve got issues with having to have multiple batteries for each truck, swap stations, and booking batteries to ensure availability and compatibility.
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The refuuelling problem could be overcome by making the batteries swappable.
That would overcomr a lot of other problems too..
The limitinng factor is battery cost and tare mass.
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You are being short-sighted on the number of limiting factors
7 years of World lithium production just for the US trucking fleet. Is this not a limiting factor?
Multiple batteries per vehicle to enable swap-outs – limiting (and more lithium required)
Large number of recharge stations (even with swap-outs) – limiting
Infrastructure to supply recharge stations – limiting
Sun disappears at night, wind does not always blow – surely a limiting factor
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A mate told me recently that electricity heavy transport would be a return to Cobb & Co Coaches, the last one stopped at Longreach QLD in 1925.
Stage coaches, stopover points to change to fresh horses and for passengers and crew rest stops, some overnight stays.
Imagine heavy transport, say a B-Double trailers and diesel prime mover (tractor) changed to EV.
Smaller of two “payload” trailers to carry the batteries pack needed for long haul heavy loads and costs involved, and loss of revenue-operating profit payload capacity, time wasted recharging or expense of spare trailer battery packs, etc
Fossil fuels are the foreseeable future for most commercial if not general applications.
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The first BEV sale in Australia was 2010. BEV’s (not hybrids) have been in the Australian vehicle market for 16 years.
The current – 2026 -market penetration of BEV’s is….8%. That is an annual growth rate over 16 years of 0.5%. It has gone nowhere.
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“Or you could electrify road transport”
I think that you forgot the sarc tag.
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Refule a truck in 10 minutes or a more expensive one in 6 hours. Brain dead.
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Dear Peter,
This place would be so much less colourful without you.
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EVs and Escooters ?
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You are not alone…
In Finland, we have a lot of peat, which was previously used in combustion boilers to produce electricity and heat. Now the use of peat is prohibited for climate reasons, so now it is transported to Sweden by the truckloads every day, where it is burned to produce electricity, which is then imported to Finland at an expensive price. Phew…
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You must have clever politicians too. The one thing that they have in common across the world is an ability to be stupid.
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“Stupid” and / or “MALICIOUS” seem to he obligatory “standards” for pollie-muppets GLOBALLY.
As Charlie Kirk used to say: “Change my Mind.”
Preferably not the way his was “changed”.
The synthetic production of liquid fuel needs to be “tuned” to maximum efficiency; i.e., total “energy “IN”, compared to total energy “OUT. Obviously it cannot be 100% efficient. The “plants’ would be best built close to “sources” of water and coal; possibly adjacent to EXISTING power stations, which ALL need coal and water. Pipelines for additional water are relatively easy to build. RAIL is probably the most efficient way of transporting coal on a steady schedule.
See also the “forbidden” technology; “NUCLEAR”; especially small “local” Thorium reactors.
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Always ask the question, “Who benefits?”
So some back-woods farmer in Finland goes out to the forest, digs some peat, takes it home and burns it to keep warm … how much tax does that guy pay? See where I’m going with this?
Take the same peat and run a big industry shipping it to Sweden, now you can impose corporate tax, resource tax, income tax on all the workers, license fees. Then when the electricity comes back, you can tax it again!
And that back-woods farmer now needs to get a second job to earn enough money to buy back what he already had to begin with … and you can tax him too, before he can spend any of that money. Now you see how it works, huh?
That’s not stupid, that’s a nice little earner … genius really.
Evil genius.
Climate enslavement.
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That’s very similar to how Australia works, coal out, goods in.
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Like “Biomass” to replace coal burner power stations heating, wood chips renamed by green politics and then added to their “renewables” smokescreen that relies on on installed capacity to also cover the average capacity factor of wind and solar installations.
Minister Bowen yesterday claimed those renewables (no breakdown like hydro power stations maybe included?) or explanation that his 50% claim would if wind and solar be installed capacity, AEMO average Capacity Factor 30% to 35% and posted here independent auditing 29%.
For every 100 MW installed real average here only 29 MW supply can be achieved
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Lawrie,
If you were a farmer, tradesman or truckie would you give any of them a job ? I’m a bit quirky but the pollies I met in Parliament in Canberra were a strange lot. The only one who made some sense was a bit tipsy from lunch. I thought that perhaps his façade was down and his sensible man was seeping out.
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So that might be the source of the peat exported to Ireland, because local peat isn’t allowed to be used (causes pollution with CO2) but imported peat doesn’t.
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I wonder how many of our very cleaver politicians are aware of this, would read and understand what it is saying and would have the balls to stand up and say we should do this and get the ‘lucky country’ some good luck not zero bad luck!!
I know Canavan and Roberts would but they need a lot more to pull their head out of the unreliables sand!
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I wonder how many of our very cleaver politicians are aware of this
A Freudian slip that describes the current state of the Australian Parliament?
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Leave it to Beaver, Cleaver. ?
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Now Opposition leaders – Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Deputy Leader Matt Canavan (both former Energy Ministers in Coalition Governments) are talking often about renew Australia, everything needed is here including natural resources of energy and minerals, educated workforce, great weather conditions prevailing, and the roadblocks for removal are without listing a long list of laws and regulations compliance costs and taxes levied generally against businesses the red tape, green tape and black tape to be cut.
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Canavan is very disappointing, a few people called him a shadow member of the denialati and he went to water, reckons carbon dioxide causes global warming.
He needs a quick lesson in atmospheric science.
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I’ll put my money on him.
The party that forms governmen6 after the next election will be yhe parTy that collars One Nation’s vote.
There’s a way to go yet before that is done, but Matt Canavan is the bloke to do it.
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Obviously there is further oil exploration opportunities in the Bass Strait. But I have heard that there are even small capped oil wells in places like Roma and Julia Creek and possibly Winton. The oil was apparently of good quality. Any old timers here who can comment on these?
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From a commercial perspective, oil in the Surat and Galilee basins is a geological tease. There are producing source rocks and decent reservoirs – but the two don’t meet up sufficiently to deliver commercial accumulations at scale.
The area around Roma has been well picked over since the wildcatting 1950’s – particularly after the discovery at Moonie (itself a modest discovery). A few small oil fields were brought into production – Taylor, Cabawin and Bennet. There are still a few micro fields left from that era, and these are sometimes spruiked by stock market miners – for example Leichhardt (which from memory produced 2 barrels per day) and Bennett (~10bbls/day).
There are however no huge Roma/Surat oil reserves being held back by dastardly Big Oil or the dead hand of government.
Winton (Galilee basin) has no capped oil wells. There are traces of gas and oil in the aquifer sandstones all over the basin – for example, the Longreach town bore had an oil separation plant. But no capped oil wells.
Julia Creek is a potential oil shale resource, so no capped wells there either.
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Then, there always the fear of affecting the Great Artesian Basin ( GAB )as well I think. But, that could be a manufactured fear to thwart oil exploration.
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Dont forget Barcaldine.
The oil well at Roma was capped. It was still producing oil, or should I say diesel up until it was capped. The oil was basically filtered and came out as diesel. The small refinery was in need of an upgrade to remove the sulfur content due to government regulations….. The fuel from Roma was used in road transport and agriculture. We dont have a cost of living crisis, we have a cost of government crisis.
Government regulations have closed the urea plants that made fertiliser. To many taxes, Urea is made from gas
Government regulations have closed oil refineries. All those terrible carbon dioxide emissions that make plants and trees grow
Without fertiliser and diesel there is no food and fibre. Urea is a high nitrogen fertiliser and is required for most crops in some shape or form
Without diesel there is no farming sector
Without diesel there is no mining sector
Without the farming and mining sectors there is no export income
The dirty diesel narative in the media, is ignorant rubbish. So long as the high sulfur fuels are used in high ph soil areas it is not of concern. Many farmers have to buy high sulfur fertilisers to address low sulfur soil deficiencies. Some of them are made as a result of being a by product of coal fired power stations. Sulfate of ammonia. Sulfur is also a necessary input into cattle production, it helps prevent cattle tick and flies and is sold in feed blocks. Cattle love it. Sulfur is not always an enemy.
For those living in the cities, buckle up things are about to get interesting. We reap what we sow
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Dont forget Barcaldine.
Indeed. The Gilmore field is another example of a small scale petroleum accumulation (albeit in the Adavale basin, rather than the Galilee). Largely depleted, gas is now supplied to the Barcaldine powerhouse via a pipeline connecting into the Surat/Bowen basins.
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The entire Cooper Basin oil-field produces this “ready-to-run” super-light crude.Filtered through an old sock, it will power “agricultural” diesel motors quite well. Possibly a bit harsh on the “S” Class.
“Sulphur removal”?
Qld crude and finished products have an incredibly low sulphur content. Just for giggles Coal from the vast central Queensland coal fields is extremely low in Sulphur. THIS is one of the reasons that coal is highly sought for specialty steel making; especially slightly exotic “engineering-grades, like 416. Sulpher inclusions are KNOWN to precipitate catastrophic failure at stresses well below nominal “yield” point.
Back in my undergraduate years in the late 1970′, one of the Chemistry “Prac” projects was to “measure” the Sulphur content of locally refined fuels.
We failed to get any readings at all, using the techniques in the US-sourced Lab manual. So, the solution was to get the resident lab tech to precisely adulterate s batch of fuel and the students could then run their appointed experiment.
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The Cooper/Eromanga Basins in SA/QLD are still being exploited, with the drilling of new oil and gas wells being virtually continuous since the first commercial gas discovery in 1963. Between them, Santos and Beach Energy drilled 102 wells – just in SA in 2025.
The Beetaloo basin (500km SE of Darwin) is going ok, and could also be an economic source of Helium.
The Perth Basin has a lot of added potential, with Lockyer (Kingia) for gas, and Erregulla for Oil. Erregulla has contingent resources of 31.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, which is significant for onshore WA.
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Oil was discovered several kilometres outside Exmouth in WA in 1952. It’s expensive to utilise because of distance & flow rate. I would imagine it’ll be uncapped shortly as the international oil price exceeds $100.00 / barrel. It’s then economic to pump!
At night the lights of drilling platforms can be seen on the horizon off Exmouth. Plenty of drilling for oil & or gas. Been going on for years but there’s never any news about results?? Why?? What’s going on?? Are the drillings capped for later use??
Is product being pumped & sold on the international markets?? This needs investigation !
Any volunteers??
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Just asked my son who is in Exmouth, catching lots of big fish.
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And a lot more Vicki
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I had extended family pastoral property owners in those districts 1800-1900 and members told me about Commonwealth Oil Refineries (COR) exploration and capped oil wells not pumped because at the time Middle East oil was cheaper to produce. Now Deputy Leader of the opposition, Nationals Leader Senator Matt Canavan has mentioned those areas as unrealised assets.
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Vicki. My grandfather (born 1873) had an older brother at Roma.
He said there was plenty of oil at Roma, but nobody honest enougn to find it.
Australia’s first oil field was 60 miles up the road at Moonie.
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We have lots of coal to produce electricity which should be utilised to run our trains rather than using diesel. Of course in the future nuclear could provide additional power to electrify transport. Note that none of this future will be reliant on Chinese windmills or solar panels.
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Queensland has run coal trains on electricity for four decades but they are high density rail networks that can justify the capital expenditure on overhead infrastructure. Not all that different to congested city networks where it makes economic sense to electrify.
Logistics in Australia has never been well sorted. It is still cheaper to run B-doubles door-to-door than transfer to trains. Once something gets to the scale of unions then the whole situation gets messy.
Unions have infiltrated BHP mines in the northeast. They are settling for annual pay of $400,000. A quick way to bring on automation and low maintenance vehicles.
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It will be good when those overpaid extortionist union brutes are replaced by robots.
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It must be noted that the Australian unions have a superb track record in killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
They bully the companies so much that they are actually forced to look elsewhere and when they do surprise, surprise they find that overseas countries provide cheaper and more reliable sources of skilled labour.
Singapore in particular has repeatedly provided such opportunities.
I know people whose very well-paid jobs would have been for life, but the company was so harassed by union officials petty bullying they were forced to relocate to Singapore and at a lower overall cost.
The Union officials naturally keep their well-paid jobs.
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Fair Work From Home industrial relations new era for redundancy
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It was said locally that iI the line was electried to Muswellbrook, the Ulan mine would electrify the150 km to the mine.
That would be a most downhill run.
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The name of that bloke sums up the state of one particular politician; we all know who that loonatic is. The Fischer Tropsch method is another version which the Germans perfected during WW11. Maybe we should revert to what happened then. A coal fired power station should include the Bergius method.
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It wasn’t perfected but some work over the years after WW2 have improved the process. South Africa used to run a SASOL plant.
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South Africa runs 2 very successful Sasol Plants. Diesel & petrol are just byproducts when viewed from the perspective of total products. Another big byproduct is Urea. That’s right the very fertiliser that was produced in Queensland by Incitec Pivot & which is now imported from Iran ( should we say was imported ). Incitec Pivot gave up on Urea due to Government interference & regulations which rendered production of an essential fertiliser uneconomical. Cleva fella our Gummint!! Full of chemical engineers, scientists , doctors & food producers. Not to mention morons of course!!
South Africa also used to store crude oil in numerous underground disused coal mines.
Their coal mines are not open cut! Lined the shafts with concrete partially filled with water, oil floats on water, & interlinked all these strategic oil stocks with pipelines & refineries. I never ever heard the words “fuel shortage crisis” mentioned. Crude was purchased from South Africa’s most vocal critics using bullion, both gold & platinum.
Not sure how much bullion reached the vaults of the oil producers governments???😂😂
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And folks – start hitting your politicians to get on with DA’s recommendations. And tell them to get off their asses now – I have!
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Don’t forget large areas of Australia are banned from exploration, such as the off shore Sydney Basin, proudly banned by fake conservative Liberal Morrison.
And the Great Australian Bight. Explorers have been scared off by the prospect of lawfare and the high costs and regulatory burden of doing business in Australia.
Also, the fake conservative Liberals colluded with Labor in Sicktoria to ban fracking – in the state constitution.
Yesterday someone mentioned potentially productive but capped-off oilfields of Roma in Queensland.
However, even if oil is found, taking into account the lawfare, the excessive regulations, land rights claims with tribute to be paid, the trade unions and their demands for tribute, the anti-energy policies of the Left, the general “can’t do” attitude in Australia, it would take decades to develop any new oil discovery. It’s analogous to trying to build a new power station. It’s just not going to happen.
And don’t forget that Australia (the Liberals in agreement with Labor) refused President TRUMP’s request for a Navy ship to help secure OUR oil supply shipping lanes.
Australia is steadfastly committed to suicide, not progress.
It won’t end well.
And to Lefties, no, you cannot run a modern Civilisation on wind, solar and Unicorn flatulence. And even if we had massive herds of magical Unicorns, we have no refining capacity to convert methane to liquid fuels.
And the if we were to build a refinery, we’d have the same issues as above, lawfare, excessive regulations, land rights claims, trade unions, the anti-energy policies of the Left, the general “can’t do” attitude in Australia etc..
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“Australia is steadfastly committed to suicide, not progress.
It won’t end well.”
Nor is it INTENDED to “end well”.
It is less like “suicide” than “assisted euthanasia’ at the hands of evil, undeserving “interlopers”.
It was Arnold Toynbee who noted: “Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.”
He likely underestimated the scale of “societal TREASON” that could be at play.
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A retired US General often interviewed on Bolt Report Sky News outlines military background, he is an advisor to POTUS Trump and the military.
He said recently that the allied nations call for support is all about securing merchant ship security not warfare in Iran, and that no formal request as such has been issued, only invitations for voluntary participation and when the warfare attack targets are eliminated, so far 90% decrease in missiles and drones from Iran in less than three weeks of deployment by Israel and USA.
Australia has however deployed over 80 ADF personnel and an RAAF Wedgetail surveillance aircraft (Boeing 737 based specialist surveillance and electronics warfare equipped. And have supplied missiles to nearby allies of Australia.
I agree that Albanese Labor’s obvious reluctance to engage is worrying and dangerous given our reliance on the US defence umbrella, and the redeployment of US assets from Australia and other Asia Pacific shared bases as the Iran area developments take precedence.
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That’s a request from UAE, not TRUMP. And the 85 personnel are in support of the aircraft.
And the fake conservative Liberals are in agreement with Labor not to send a ship.
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No fakes, Captain Andrew Hastie commenting is fair and reasonable when read in full and in context
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Captain Andrew Hastie former SASF Officer transcript of interview
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Andrew Hastie did comment briefly in another interview that in his opinion President Trump has been too overbearing when dealing with closely allied nations, but it was being objective not condemnation,
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Trump gave no notice?
I don’t think Trump got any notice.
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This article is so far fetched it it hilarious. It completely ignores reality of the Australian radical left in charge of the whole economic mess that Australia has become.
Who do you call in a hydrocarbon fuel crisis.
The Climate Change authority head of course Anthea Harris who has been named Australia’s fuel supply guru.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBF5OmdfrDw
Can you imagine her connections around the world to get access to diesel.
On a slightly different front, taxpayers have just given Snowy Hydro $1bn to supply low cost electricity to Tomago to save the 5,000 jobs. Did you know?
Canberra is so far out of touch with the real world it is in fairy land.
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It’s bizarre that a person with an ideological commitment against energy, hydrocarbon fuels in particular, is put in charge of solving a hydrocarbon fuel crisis.
It goes to show how stupid and low Australia has sunk.
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It gives a clearer view of their intended aims of a fuel guru.
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I worry that it is the real world. How can so many be so mislead?
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Reference: Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments 2007-2013 and Renewable Energy Target 32% legislated law and complimentary State legislation and regulations.
Transition away from fossil fuels
Albanese Labor 2022 – 2026 so far RET now 82%
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And still the munchables can’t see it!
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We shouldn’t be in our current situation of a months worth of fuel to bail us out when the crap hits the fan, but here we are just covered in it.
This suits the clueless left who are only too happy to see us rely on luck and very stupid politicians.
We’ll never change anything unless we change our voting patterns and tomorrow we have a SA election to see if we are starting to wake up.
I’m not very optimistic, but we should know the result by 9 pm tomorrow night.
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We will know who won about 7.10 pm when the first votes are counted. It’s the composition of the Opposition that matters, and that may take a week.
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In general I believe any gas or coal to liquid conversion is expensive compared even to the current cost of oil.
Conversion is energy inefficient and requires massive investment in plant.
Australia has blown most of its capital on the folly of wind and solar. The kitty is empty!
And even if we committed to it, we would still have all the problems I discussed above.
It’s just not going to happen.
The problem was known and should have been addressed decades ago.
It’s too late now. Hence Australia will continue to experience its dramatically reducing standard of living and exploding national debt until Australia’s borrowing capacity reaches its limit.
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Some of us are “experienced” enough to have been involved in efforts to counteract the fuel crisis of the 1970’s, when the same projects were contemplated.
Yes, it can be done but David is correct – horrendously expensive. We are better off electrifying anything possible and using that coal to produce abundant, cheap electricity until the nuclear option is implemented.
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Back in the day, the Rundle oil shale deposit was also The Thing.
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There’s nothing quite like fuel and electricity shortages to sharpen the mind of even the dullest politician or public serpent.
Now that real problems are glaringly obvious with the utopian fantasy of intermittent power, perhaps those influential in the national conversation can elevate science and engineering at least a little.
Yes I know, but we can all dream!
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You see when Trump says “drill, baby drill”, most people just think he means we need to drill for oil. But what he is saying is that we need to turn our whole thinking around. That “thinking” which has only been evident in the last 30 years. That thinking that man made CO2 somehow affects the climate. It’s just complete nonsense. So, once you change that narrative then all these proven technologies, as described by Archibald, can re-emerge. It’s really quite frustrating to hear of this coal liquefaction method and realise that Victoria could be supplying vast amounts of light oil from brown coal. That tech has been around for decades and we had a pilot plant in operation. But it’s really frustrating to hear that we get condensates from the NW shelf that are unused locally. It’s really bloody annoying to hear that a perfectly good, modern Kwinana refinery was closed down. How idiotic was that?
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Idiotic you say? Anthony Albanese says hold my beer. Holds a national cabinet yesterday and announced a fuel “tsar”. Appoints a person ( Anthea Harris) who was once head of the Climate Change Authority. So, a person who hates hydrocarbon fuels with a passion. Ok, beat that for idiocy.
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Don’t think we can Ross. THE poorest decision (in a case of many by each way) he has made to date…………
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The ABC is now reporting that Labor is considering a ‘windfall’ tax on the fossil fuel energy sector – the second highest taxed corporate sector.
Labor will not now, nor will it ever, consider it’s own policies as destroying the country; they are too addicted to tax and spend.
Will there come a time when those energy companies decide it’s just too damned expensive to supply Australia with fuel? What then Mr Blackout Bowen? Mr Smug Chalmers? Mr Low IQ Albanese? No diesel for farmers, no farms, no food. The entire country collapses.
How can one government perform so poorly as to destroy Australia in five years?
A recession is coming, but like Paul Keating denying it until AFTER he was kicked out, Chalmers will use taxpayer money to throw at the populace and say ‘nothing to see! We’re helping you!’
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Keating didn’t deny the recession he caused, he bragged about it.
3 months after being typical Keating and sneering that Australia wasn’t in the throes of going into recession he got up and said “This is the recession Australia had to have, and I engineered it”.
As usual the media let him get away with his back flip and praised him for it.
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None of them understood that thy driver of that recession was the destruction of the wool marketing system, which halved our wool income. In 1991 $3 bilion was a lot of money to lose.
You. would remembertht the “oiL shock” problem was solved by drilling in the North Sea.
I worry that Trump seemed surprised by the blockade.. It has been done before.
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I remember it well. In 1989 economy was significantly overheated and it seemed the Reserve Bank was being discouraged from raising interest rates as then Treasurer Keating needed to win the 1990 election. The reserve bank board frequently met, but the rate rises we desperately needed never happened. With the election won, rates jumped sharply. My job disappeared and our mortgage shot up to 17%. But Keating and his caring party won that election. How nice for them.
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Checking a leftist comment on fuel excise/tax I discovered that roads and bridges maintenance is no longer the main purpose of that revenue collected, indexed for adjustment 6 monthly. Labor Hawke-Keating 1983-1996 announced the fuel tax as general revenue some of which would go to roads.
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The Fraser Govt introduced the fuel excise to raise funds for the Bicentenial Road Project, the aim of which was to make the Hume Highway a multi lane dual carriageway from Sydney to Melbourne, seal the complete length of Highway 1 around Australia, and make the three highways into Canberra dual carriageways.
By 1988.
The Hume was finally completed in the first decade of this century, 20 years late, the sealing of Highway 1 was actually accomplished, and one of the three highways into Canberra became a dual carriageway in the ’90s.
That money was going into a quarantined account, and could only be used for those projects.
Then Labor got elected and Keating rolled it into General Revenue and started spending it bribing the electorate instead of building transport infrastructure.
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As with Howard-Costello sovereign wealth Future Fund, earnings to be applied to paying all public service pensions and the balance reinvested, $60 billion to start and now close to $300 billion and Chalmers-Gallagher-Albanese Labor have been trying to get around the legislation that requires only pension funding and building the sovereign wealth fund.
Future Fund was handed to Rudd Labor 2007 and they were the first to benefit from not having to make budget provision to pay pensions for public service employees retirement. A substantial budget liability removed. And when considered alongside the 6 years of budgets in deficit, and I am well aware of the GFC however that was not going to cause recession here because of the zero debt, $22 billion budget surplus, Future Fund and other small funds, string economic performance and generally a very good position.
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The Recession is here, masked by pumping immigration and public service. Has been for several years. When it becomes visible to the unthinking and clueless electorate it will be very, very bad.
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And the difference between closed and decommissioned is?
Can these facilities just be turned on again?
With weeks of fuel left, how long before these facilities can contribute at full capacity?
We don’t have years to develop new oilfields and build refineries.
South Pars, with current damage, will take 3 years to repair, and Trump is threatening to obliterate refineries now.
Iran’s enrichment facilities and weapons have been destroyed. Just like they were 6 months ago.
Iran was never a threat.
“Kent insisted there was zero U.S. intelligence of Iran planning a direct attack, nearing a nuclear weapon, or posing an immediate homeland threat. He cited Iran’s religious fatwa against nuclear weapons (since 2004) and said the assassinated Supreme Leader Khamenei had moderated the program”
– from the Tucker interview.
Next up, how to boil an egg using a pushbike and generator.
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Tenements for Pavo and Dorado are now owned by Santos.
All the info below is publicly available, so I’m not revealing anything naughty.
Rather than Mean Sea Level, it’s not uncommon to use the Australian Height Datum (AHD) when drilling wells offshore Australia.
https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/positioning-australia/geodesy/ahdgm/ahd
There’s also LAT, or Lowest Astronomical Tide, but let’s not go there right now…
Pavo 1 was drilled to 4192.2m (vertical depth) below AHD in February- April 2022.
for interest, the bit of ocean can be found here:
latitude: 19° 00’ 48.08” S
Longitude: 119° 10’ 45.34” E
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7VDyhKmoEe3nxt15A
water depth: 89.4m below AHD..
Dorado has had 3 wells drilled so far (dorado, 1, 2, 3) in 2018-2019, just south of the Phoenix, Phoenix South, and Roc fields.
Dorado 3 reached a depth of 4449.7m (vertical depth) below AHD
well testing (basically seeing what flows out of the rock by itself) was done on 2 separate zones between 3887m and 4024m (vertical depth from AHD)
Latitude: 19° 01′ 49.432″ S
Longitude: 118° 43′ 34.125″ E
(about 50km West-ish of Pavo 1, and 150-ish km North of Pt Hedland)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4HnJmKmQewsPTV8t5
water depth: 90.5m below AHD
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I can’t wait until some Leftist comes up with the old idea of growing our own oil from oil-rich algae in ponds, etc..
It’s been tried many times over decades.
It is not even close to economic viability.
In other words, an ideal project for some activist “scientist” to apply for a grant of taxpayer money to see out their otherwise unproductive career.
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Keep the research going!
You never know what you might find in that field.
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I disagree. Feckless lunatic politicians are a big enough impediment to fuel autarky for Australians. Any politician with 20/20 vision for Australia’s fuel self sufficiency is mired down by the rest of the political class, the bought-off fourth estate and sheer public ignorance.
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When the poop hits the fan, renewable fantasies disappear.
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In recent days I have seen the whole AGW thing canned. They have gone. as far as they cculd, and now it has to be dumped as a distraction.
So, what’s their new project? My guess is Pursuit of Pauline.
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The problem with coal liquefaction is there’s a large investment upfront … on a project which is only occasionally profitable during times of crisis. If there was a genuine long-term shortage of oil, I’m sure Australia could go this way but actually there’s no shortage of oil in the world.
The Chinese have a working plant, and I guess it’s impossible to measure profitability when no doubt they built it for strategic reasons.
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BP’s Bernard Looney, say no more.
Kwinana had the most modern reformer of all Australian refineries,(used to upgrade naptha to high octane blending stock) and still it was shut down.
BP … Beyond Petroleum.
They could be processing NW shelf condensate.
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Apparently it was converted to an import terminal and was going to be a “green hydrogen” hub. — The hydrogen project was paused a year ago, because construction costs went up and govt subsidies went down, and everyone had realized Hydrogen plants were useless and expensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwinana_Oil_Refinery
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Angus Taylor commented on it in 2020 but did not mention anything about national security. He mostly protested that jobs would the lost and even said “Closure of the refinery will not negatively impact Australian fuel supplies.”
In other words, the Coalition government had no idea that our oil supplies would vanish in weeks at the first hint of a crisis.
https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/bp-kwinana-refinery
”
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What a joke about the shut down not negatively affecting supplies The Late Jim Molan was speaking about this problem back then but his calls fell on deaf ears. We are finally getting the reality check we needed, so hopefully Black Out B will ‘Ferme La Bouche’ and get voted out next election.
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PM Turnbull maybe, but not PM Morrison and Energy Minister Taylor.
Senator General Jim Molan was a real asset to our nation
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When recently Minister for Energy Bowen referred to “dirty fuel” being released for fuel supply crisis use many recoiled in horror, what will it do to our emissions controlled engines they said.
The Truth – until 2025 Clean Air Act commenced banning fuel specifications used here up to 2025 as “clean fuel” that produced here from our oil wells fuel was acceptable but since 2025 exported overseas.
Same as his rants about “dirty imported engine vehicles” promoting EV sales, ignores the Australia New Zealand Standard and registration laws and regulations here. And for example by Isuzu 3-litre diesel with Euro-5 compliance purchased end of 2017 new.
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Some history noting Labor, Rudd and Gillard 2007-2013 legislated law Renewable Energy Target and transition away from fossil fuels;
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Drill Baby, Drill
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Libs will be really pissed by this. They’ll never agree but the leader of their coalition party is shouting it from the tree tops. Libs dare not publicly disagree because of embarrassment. Caravan has got them by the short & curlys 😂😂. Disagreeing will lose them votes to One Nation as it proves the LNP is still married to net zero & the Paris Accord.
Gotta love you Matt Canavan!!
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Leader of the Opposition Angus Taylor and Deputy Leader Matt Canavan are both on the same wavelength, and on energy both are former Energy Ministers.
They have been out and about talking about a new deal saying Australia has everything needed from natural resources of energy and minerals and much not exploited because of climate politics and governments red, green, black tape bans and restrictions. Also educated workforce, generally great weather conditions, and much more, and of course a major electricity and gas supply roadblock to be removed.
Morrison Government did not sign up to Glasgow net zero 2021 and instead stated an aspirational goal subject to new technology and without damaging the economy. In 2019-2020 PM Morrison (Taylor Energy Minister at the time) and POTUS Trump did that unlimited US oil supply to order deal, and $94 million order of oil stored in the US until new storage facilities were built in Australia. After 2022 Albanese Labor did not proceed with the planning to tender stages.
Note: I believed the US oil stock was still available but according to advice Albanese-Chalmers Labor sold it as part of their 2022/23 budget surplus creative accounting and windfall tax receipts from economy growing after COVID-19 pandemic downturn. And that 2022/23 Budget was the Morrison-Freydenberg Budget announced in Parliament March 2022 for 1 July 2022. In October-Novemeber 2022 Treasurer Chalmers announced a revised “new” Budget and budget surplus instead of the March 2022 estimated deficit.
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But Morrison set a Net Zero Target in Nov 2021 in time for Glasgow. Up til then Australia had no target.
Thanks for the info on what happened to the oil stored in the US.
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Jo that is the media and other deception, various foreign news media criticised PM Morrison for not “signing up to net zero” at the Glasgow COP 2021, where POTUS Biden and UK PM Johnson tried to convince Australia to sign an agreement and the PM instead said Australia will have “an aspirational goal” subject to new technology developments and without damaging the economy.
And in 2019-2020 PM Morrison did that deal with POTUS Trump for unlimited supply when ordered by Australia to US oil, US being self sufficient in oil and gas and exports more than Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Morrison Government also (Angus Taylor Minister for Energy at the time) addressed the oil refinery closures announced and convinced two owner to continue operating in Australia. They also talked about building at least one new oil refinery in the near future.
So should be no surprise now that Opposition Leader Taylor and Deputy Leader Canavan are on a mission, no aspirational goal for net zero now considered, only Labor Greens Teals continue to support net zero 2026.
Transition away from fossil fuels etc
https://www.scottmorrison.com.au/morrison-government-achievements/net-zero-commitment-at-cop26
https://www.thetimes.com.au/politics/11126-scott-morrison-australia-s-plan-to-reach-our-net-zero-target-by-2050
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More on the Morrison Glasgow net zero aspirational goal;
https://iceds.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/morrisons-rejection-2050-net-zero-emissions-target-odds-paris-agreement-experts-say
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During the 1960s Australians believed correctly that an abundance of natural resources of energy and minerals would set up economic prosperity for centuries to come.
Bass Starit Oil & Gas for example;
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I think the 1960’s were a time of peak prosperity for Australia. It’s been downhill ever since, especially after 1975 with Whitlam and the Lima Declaration.
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Then Keating and UN Agenda-21 Sustainability 1990
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In WA, all due to a combination of a far-sighted Liberal premier and his minerals minister, some far-sighted and very cluey prospectors, and a number of well-run mining companies. A winning combination.
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The future is looking decidedly different.
‘The International Energy Agency has recommended reducing highway speed limits, limiting air travel and encouraging more work from home as the Iran conflict crunches oil supply and leaves companies scrambling to rework pricing and supply chains to withstand a long period of turmoil.’ (AFR)
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Didn’t the U.S. do the same last oil shortage?
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Since filling the tank on my diesel 3-litre Isuzu SUV 4WD as the fuel crisis began to bite us I modified my driving and have not ventured out of town limits since, now 57 kms driven and without aircon today the computer engine management system shows 11.9 kms/litre of diesel.
I normally drive to look after the mechanicals and not slowly, the corrected speedo reading at 100 kmh is 93 kmh actual speed for example, I drive past Highway Patrol often and never been pulled over, but last year did down Wollongong way not realise I was in an 80 zone and was caught on speed camera and the speed alleged was 100 kmh.
I anticipate stopping watching traffic and traffic lights up ahead (typically and towing a close to 2-tonnes boat or caravan front disc pads last 100,000 kms on my vehicles. Starting off not too slowly to hold up traffic but light acceleration and on hills only what is needed without wasting power and torque and fuel.
And my vehicles are serviced on time every time in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations and by a private service centre where specialist vehicles are cared for and racing cars. If I am away when services needed I go a dealer, the first full service for my present vehicle was in Darwin.
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To those who say it’s panic buying… Why did the Flexible Pavement Association of Australia meet a week ago to plan the crisis? Why are we worried tht we have 3 weeks of asphalt left? Every road building job in Australia is at risk.
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Must be, they have appointed Tsar.
😉
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The grass is needing a haircut but is being left longer in order to spin out fuel supplies. It’s a 3 hr job on a Cox ride-on. Maybe a few more old sheep mowers might be in order!
We are not going anywhere unnecessarily and we don’t tend to drive with leaden feet anyway. One wonders why there are still so many cars going by, complete with big boats and/or caravans?! Urbanites?
In 1973 we were living in Germany and had alternating days to drive; even registration numbers one day and odds the next. On a visit to England at the same time, the method to save fuel was to impose 50 mph (miles per hour) speed limits (pretty much 80 kph for those unaccustomed to the old measures). I think one of our present cars actually performs more efficiently at higher speeds than 80 kph, but never mind.
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I have proven that driving under 90 kmh actual speed not speedo reading mostly read higher than actual speed is the most highway economical and notably when towing a heavy load. Same or similar driving skill applies of not over using the accelerator for hills and overtaking and overtaking not up hills. Example for my 4WD 100 kmh is actually 93 kmh
Braking early so that the brakes are applied at low speed just before the stopping point.
Anticipating cornering lines to straighten the curve in the road out a little and smoothly.
Also maintenance of vehicle is very important and engine condition of course.
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As I grow older it frustrates me having been close to politics all my life when growing up and early adulthood, not so close thereafter but a keen observer and follower of current affairs and politics that so much truth is distorted or hidden in favour of very professional spin doctor sourced and researched relentless negativity from the Union Labor Greens, and Teals who are lobbyists for vested interests who look at wealth creation first and foremost and political parties as targets for influencing.
Even as I have outlined on other comments LINO left Liberals In Name Only and in National Party fellow travellers effectively interfering in party management and parliamentary party. The objective is clearly self interest, above everything else.
Consider the missing $15 billion allegedly taken from VicGov public works projects and unions. Consider the transition away from fossil fuels and wind, solar, batteries, rooftop solar and home batteries, EV incentives and others Renewable Energy Target and emissions reduction targets based.
The Liberal leadership changes, the Labor leadership changes like Hawke to Keating and Rudd, Gillard & Rudd again. Jockeying for position and influence and cooperation.
And the losers are we the Australian population with one chance to vote if we can navigate the preferential voting system here, as compared to not compulsory UK and US one vote one value systems.
The Two Party Preferred vote counting system prevails and is virtually unbreakable because the 2PP won’t allow it even if one side tries.
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Tin catalysts are useful. I have 3 cars and various small Honda engines which run better with a tin pellet section in the fuel line. Consistently I see >5% extra milage and better low rev torque. Mechanics tell me that carbon deposits are slowly burned off the piston head and valve seats become coated in a tin oxide protective coating. LPG taxis report no valve recession at 500,000 km.
On my 4.2 Toyota Landcruiser the item is a stainless 30mm tube about 300mm long mounted in the rubber fuel line. There are a numerous tin ingots inter-spaced with stainless shake-proof washers with a light spring at one end to push them towards each other. I mounted the item along the line of the engine on a 5″ steel arm so that a the whole thing shakes with the engines vibrations. In theory, micro particles of tin are abraded off the ingots and enter the fuel causing more complete combustion.
Henry Broquet is often credited with this discovery during WW2.
Mine was made in Sydney but anyone with a TIG welder could knock one up.
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Time to end the Federation.
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When I was doing higher milage I made a water splitting unit which added 1 or 2% hydrogen and oxygen to the intake air of a 2.4 litre Ford diesel. It became more responsive with a much improved top speed but my poorly designed Pulse Width Modulator over-heated at full power as it had insufficient heat sinks. I never tested the milage as I was running on home-made bio-diesel at about 20¢/l.
Gavan Knox at Perth Uni (Au) has designed a MOSFET based PWM with current limitation which is very efficient and does not over-heat. His units often return 20% better fuel consumption but are pricey. They are mostly installed by big rigs that burn 200 litres of diesel a day. That’s around Au$2750/wk in March 2026 terms but with a hydrogen unit you could reduce that by $550 every week.
Obviously, if you are like my wife and only burning 50 litres ($135) of diesel a week the savings are going to be numerically smaller and it might take years to recover the installation cost.
Non of the car manufacturers have incentives to make fuel efficient engines. The oil companies work hard to limit fuel economising devices. Back in the 80s a plumber near Picton NSW devised a modified type of carby for his ute. BHP bought the design and shelved it. The plumber built a big house and retired early.
Non of our pollies would have a clue. Au has more civil servants per head of population than any country on Earth but are incapable of freezing fuel taxes at 2025 levels. Clearly, they are not on our side.
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You would find that the alternator would drag more power from the engine than the H2 was supplying.
An easy way to reduce drag on the engine and increase fuel mileage is to replace the belt driven water pump with an electric one.
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I agree that using belts is a rather quaint way of driving ancillary equipment. Alternators, water-pumps and A/C pumps need to be incorporated in the drive-line.
My new Whirlpool washing machine has a slow-speed/high torque DC motor mounted around the shaft of the drum. It’s super quiet and uses less electricity than the last Whirlpool unit which had a noisy high speed AC motor and gear-box.
With regard to hydrogen unit efficiency, – the extra power drain is significant but the hydrogen acts as a diesel fuel combustion enhancer. Complete combustion of ALL the diesel takes place early on in the power stroke and no fuel enters the exhaust pipe. The extra power is derived from the diesel that would otherwise be wasted. This is particularly significant in larger cylinder volumes. Anything over 500cc suffers from incomplete flame-spread.
My Landcruiser has 6 cylinders over 680cc so benefits significantly from the micro tin metal particles in the fuel which assist combustion. The tin is not burning but is merely a catalyst. In the hydrogen scenario it does burn but it’s the enhanced diesel combustion which provides that 20% extra milage.
I have found that my bio-diesel burns better by simply adding 10% methanol. I can even run straight Canola Oil (Rapeseed Oil) with 10% methanol added but have to start and stop the engine on conventional fuel cos the Canola is too viscous and non-flammable when cold. Of course, one has to have twin tanks like the old Landcrusiers.
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Fuel crisis ??
The Middle East is the source of just 20% of total consumption.
So why does it seem that every other servo has empty tanks ?
And the price crude has only increased from Au$ 0.64 per litre to Au$1.00 per litre,…
(Us$75 per bbl to Us$ 120 per bbl)……. a Au $0.36 per litre increase, whilst refined fuels (Diesel) has jumped from $1.70 to $2.90 ( a $1.20 increase) ???
All things being unchanged, refining costs, fuel tax, margins, etc….
…where has the other $ 0.84 gone ??
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Correction..
That should read..
..And the price crude has only increased from Au$ 0.80 per litre to Au$1.28per litre,…
(Us$75 per bbl to Us$ 120 per bbl)……. a Au $0.48per litre increase, whilst refined fuels (Diesel) has jumped from $1.70 to $2.90 / ltr..( a $1.20 increase) ???
All things being unchanged, refining costs, fuel tax, margins, etc….
…where has the other $ 0.72 /ltr gone ??
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I think the main reasons for closure were purely economic:
Economic Viability: Sustained low refining margins and high operating costs made local production uncompetitive.
Regional Competition: The rise of massive, efficient “mega-refineries” in Asia and the Middle East flooded the market, reducing the need for smaller, older Australian refineries.
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There were economic reasons but primarily BP went very woke. They came to regret that after losing billions. I think they really thought fossil fuels were on the way out.
https://joannenova.com.au/2025/02/bp-in-crisis-the-oil-industrys-biggest-loser-on-renewable-energy/
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