petrol prices, page-7

I second that Doogs, careful what you say Backontrack LOL!

We are tied to Tapis because that is our local market. The WTI price quoted by much of the media should never be quoted as the oil price as it only really applies to North America and is inferior refining oil due to be contaminated with lots of the tar sands oil that is being held in the inventory now held at Cushing. The reason the WTI price is low is that because of it's inferior composition is is not desireable for refining and refineries have to blend it with with more expensive oil. Inventories at Cushing have been high because of this very point.

Even if we could use WTI oil from Cushing it would be much more expensive because of transport costs. Oil tanker costs have soared as due to oil demand tanker utilisation is at an all time high.

Unfortunately as we are finding out increasingly Australia is gas rich, but not oil rich! And we are having to import about 70% of our oil for refining. Yes Australia does export some oils but most of this oil is unable to be refined here, older refineries are built for a specific range of oil feedstocks and cannot use all types of oil we produce. We need refinery upgrades here to enable them to accept a broader range of feedstock but it is cheaper to just import fuel from Singapore. Most of our oil refineries have been mothballed over the years.

http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/facts.htm

The oil price won't stay down for long either, the USA has been using it's SPR (Stategic Petroleum Reserve) to keep a lid on prices. They will need to top it back up soon as the SPR is there for national emergencies and as a war stockpile. Unfortunately Australia does not have an SPR, like with our mineral wealth we have sold our souls the the multinationals for short term gain.

Ponder this, what would happen to Australia's ability to defend itself if our oil & gas instalations were 'aquired forcibly' from the north? With our shipping lanes closed we would immediately be short of more than 70% of our oil requirement and much of our domestic/industrial fuel gas, the whole country would rely on Bass Strait oil and coal seam gas. Private vehicle use would be severely restricted. Our industrial output would pretty much cease and our economy would collapse, we would be forced to go to war.

As the US economy fails and it's military dominance fades, China/India/Asia continues to grow and require more resources the unfriendly aquisition of Australian resources becomes more & more likely.