Australia mulls building new oil refinery

Australia is weighing plans for a major oil refinery as part of efforts to secure its fuel resources against the backdrop of unstable global supply chains amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

According to a government statement on July 28, the facility in Western Australia state "could be the first new large-scale petrol refinery built in Australia since the 1960s."

The authorities will conduct a A$4 million ($2.8 million) pre-feasibility study, part of a A$15 billion federal government package "to secure Australia's fuel security now and ensure our energy sovereignty into the future," it said.

Australia currently has two oil refineries — one in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state, and the other in Geelong, Victoria state.

"The longer the war in the Middle East goes on, the greater the impact on Australia will be, and my government will continue to do everything we can to shield Australia from the worst effects — and set us up for the future," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Following the launch of military attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran in February, the Australian government signed agreements with some neighboring countries to boost and secure its fuel supplies.

Australia's fuel stockpile, updated on July 25, showed that it had the equivalent of 42 days of gasoline, 38 days of diesel and 32 days of jet fuel.

A temporary fuel excise relief, introduced as part of measures to help Australian motorists and consumers cope with higher costs from the Middle East conflict, is set to expire in August.

The average price of premium 95 gasoline across Australia's New South Wales state hit A$2.11 a liter on July 29, compared to highs of more than A$2.50 in recent months, according to figures from the state's fuel price monitoring platform.

Tim Buckley, founder and director of the Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance, told China Daily that the latest decision for a pre-feasibility study into a new oil refinery is "a massive own goal, one that will do nothing to build Australia's energy security in the short or medium term".

By the time any resulting plant is operational in five to 10 years, it will "undermine Australian energy security by locking in our dependence on imported fossil fuels for many decades to come, undermining our energy system transformation in alignment with the climate science," he said.

"The refinery aims to process crude oil, but given our declining domestic oil reserves, this will do very little to improve energy security and independence — we will remain locked into our current reliance on imports of diesel and oil from the Middle East," Buckley said.

He said funds used for fossil fuels would be "far better deployed in enabling and accelerating the adoption of zero emissions industries of the future, starting with boosting our enabling infrastructure investments in electric vehicles — EVs for passenger transport, for buses and delivery trucks, for interstate freight haulage and for electrification of our world leading mining sector."

Australia needs to invest in green electrification and decarbonization technologies, Buckley said, in part by leveraging technology, manufacturing and export capacities with "our most important two-way trading partner, China."

Buckley said Australia risks using the US war against Iran as an excuse to delay permanent solutions that are already available. He questioned why the country is again wasting a global crisis instead of leveraging it to accelerate investment in obvious solutions, arguing that vested fossil fuel interests are yet again undermining Australia's national interests.

Contact the writers at xinxin@chinadaily.com.cn