Thanks for an excellent post, Chris. Europe, the UK, and Australia have done it to themselves. I don’t believe they can continue virtue signaling forever. Only they know how much pain they are willing to endure for the CO2 Climate Cult.
My question is, do our Federal Leaders (on both sides of Parliament) have the requisite courage and conviction to finally address the strategic energy supply gaps which have been so graphically highlighted by this latest crisis?
Unequivocally, no. Electorally achieving having this nation being led by half-wits smart enough to actually develop Australian uranium, coal and gas for the benefit of Australian will not happen in either of our lifetimes combined. The ideological possession of climate change runs deep in a population so spineless and dim that it collectively agreed to mRNA injections so they could get permission to go to the football. This nation state and its people will deserve every moment of its impending economic collapse.
LOL you are correct. The decline of our energy resilence has been going on since at least Johnny was PM. 30yrs. He even mandated Ethanol as a kickback to Malindra who gave LNP donations. According to David Archibald Ethanol has a lousy energy density plus its hygroscopic and rusts out your fuel tank if its mild steel. E10 or E20 is cheap for a reason.
Out of every crisis lies an opportunity. This is one. The two major parties could put aside their electoral calculations to forge an action plan to immediately fix this. It will probably need to loop in the States but only once they’ve agreed on the plan; otherwise it will be hijacked just as Victoria and WA did during COVID. An additional benefit would be to at last neuter the de facto veto the Greens exercise over nuclear power and fossil fuels; in the face of the current existential crisis, they can be exposed as the extremist denialists that they are.
Nope it would take more than 3yrs to fix, so none are interested in starting something they can't take credit for. I recall being told Nuclear was not suited for Australia, as our population was too small. now after adding 8-10M bodies in 25yrs, It's too expensive. But queuing up to buy Fuel on the open market is alright. How odd that is. We have reached NETT ZERO (in competiveness!)
Responses from Liberal and Labor-Green. As joint collaborators they will now resort to finger wagging. In Labor's case trotting out Thistlewaite, Murray Watt, Andy Charlton and Bowen in the notable absence of the appointed fuel czarina who has quietly disappeared.
And where are the wise teal women? No interest in sovereignty either.
Absolutely not. Short term gain is all they care about not a vision for the future with coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Drilling for oil, building dams and halting immigration of aliens.
So our fuel security is a dud, and we can blame almost the entire political spectrum in Canberra for it, the next mad rush is already upon us - data centres - when we have no way to power them, we can't even keep the lights on 24/7, no-one has clearly explained where the in-feed data is coming from and why we should suddenly build dozens of them instead of a slower build to actual (Australian) demand. We don't need more pressure on our energy systems because of this new world-wide push and our current energy mess. Are they connected to the global 15-minute cities push, it seems so.
A sobering summary Chris. No surprises, its commodity trading. Australia's sovereignty is now publicly traded. The marxist march continues to trample Australia.
Australia has an estimated 800 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas from shale deposits. At one time it was predicted that Australia would become a leading gas exporter to SE Asia However, these deposits require hydraulic fracturing and onerous regulations regarding this process have greatly slowed exploitation. It is quite sad.
I am not sure exactly what you are referring to. About 60% of the oil and most of the natural gas in the U.S. comes from shale basins. Gas and oil are produced from long reach horizontal wells that have been hydraulically fractured. Natural gas in the U.S. is around half the price it was 20 years ago and that is real pricing - not adjusted for inflation. Perhaps you are referring to the oil shale projects of the 1970's in which companies attempted to produce oil in situ from the Green River Oil Shale by heating.
The Beetaloo Basin the the Northern Territories (NT) of Australia is estimated to hold 500 TCF of natural gas. to economically produce will require hydraulic fracturing.
Other basins in Australia also have large potential recoverable reserves. These are largely natural gas - not oil, although some condensate will likely be produced as well. However hydraulic fracturing is regulated by individual states in Australia. Until recently there was a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the NT. The moratorium has been lifted but there is still is strict regulation and lengthy permitting delays. The result is that the Beetaloo Basin produces no natural gas at present, despite its potential.
In the U.S. the contract price for natural gas is $2.91 USD per thousand cubic feet (MCF) In Australia that same MCF will cost you $13 AUD or about $9.02 USD. Given the resource potential of Australia, it is clear that this price differential is solely due to bad policies, not gas scarcity
Great story well told. Perhaps if the nation grinds to a halt for a month the uniparties will be hammered until they see the light. Nothing like a dose of public unrest to start the backbench worrying about their prospects in the next election leading to a re-examination of their policy platform. The One Nation vote in SA indicates a hunger for change. Labor can free itself of the green agenda. Bowen and his ilk have to go. Let him and Turnbull migrate to the greens. We need energy at a fraction of the current cost if we are to have a future. Line up to get some Chinese infrastructure. Ditch ARCUS.
Let’s remember the uniparty got us here! Just because Labor are in power it doesn’t mean you can sheet all the blame home to them! Successive governments have all contributed and caused the problem. They are pretty incompetent but I like their light touch. No patronising speeches like we got from Morrison and the Covid premiers.
There certainly needs to change but I have no faith in the coalition. Turnbull’s mate Hastie would a disaster. Taylor- Let’s see.
I am so tired of Liberal failed candidates and party members caning the Labor government on Sky. Hypocrites the lot of them.
I wouldn’t go that far. Hastie is a Christian and a conservative but obviously has anti war views which are understandable and strange considering he was part of SAS. Maybe a bit of TDS too.
See the article by Rebecca Weisser in the Spectator dated 5th April, 2026. He comes across as a nasty, simple-minded lefty. He is hanging out with Malcolm Turnbull! I can email it to you. davidarchibaldperth@gmail.com
I haven’t subscribed to the Spectator for a while. I never read the English writers except for two and never the American ones so it’s just not worth it. I can probably find it.
Obviously Australia has had years of politicians and governments who have received phenominal salaries but not one of them has had the brains and guts to stand up and say that Australia needs to be able to support herself and fuel is a basic necessity so DIG BABY DIG
What company has the available finance to support Australia digging for oil? To stop this happening in Australia is ludicrous. Australia is sitting on a knife edge.We hope and prey that Australia can get a share of the oil if/when the Gulf of Hormez? is opened or we die and wait for China/Russia to help us. No doubt money will be involved. The Australian government is useless. Australia is sitting on millions of barrels of oil but nothing positive and helpful is done.
It needs a courages political leader to take this head on, with lots of good arguments (include thos one), thick skin and persistence to correct Australia's direction. I hope A Taylor takes a good look at T Abbott and copies that style. He might get there. But, boy, is it needed.
Thank-you for your work - from a regional Australian fighting with the local community against the non-renewables / globalist wealth transfer social, ecological and financial disaster.
What if those 700,000 interstate movements were made by electrified rail? How much liquid fuel would that save? The intra state can use diesel and electric within cities and towns. There is a future that doesn’t lean so heavily on fossil fuels in the near term and, ultimately, not at all in the future
I had a look at your submission, and it was pretty much full of the details, that engineers could have planned and built systems to get us the energy security we need. Sadly we closed 2 more refineries since then. Using our abundance of coal to liquid fuels seems the smart move, even if it costs $2B, we should do it.
I started my career in the New Zealand Ministry of Energy in 1982. The Ministry was established post the 1970s oil shocks including to support the then National Government’s so called Think Big projects, a series of state supported energy substitution projects. Some proved wise in retrospect, but many became white elephants before they were even completed. This experience led my generation of policy wonks to be sceptical of basing government policy on what’s just happened (you will usually get it wrong) and to get interested in competition, markets and privatisation. Your article can equally support an argument that it maybe wise for Australia (amongst other things) to focus on being a rich country so that it can afford to compete for spot energy purchase on the rare occasions that there are shortages. Over reacting and over-insuring for rare manageable events is often not sensible for individuals as it is for countries.
South africa via Sasol was producing oil from coal in the 1950’s Rhodesia was producing ethanol from their sugar cane to supplement the lack of fuel due to sanction in the ‘70’s
Thanks for an excellent post, Chris. Europe, the UK, and Australia have done it to themselves. I don’t believe they can continue virtue signaling forever. Only they know how much pain they are willing to endure for the CO2 Climate Cult.
My question is, do our Federal Leaders (on both sides of Parliament) have the requisite courage and conviction to finally address the strategic energy supply gaps which have been so graphically highlighted by this latest crisis?
Unequivocally, no. Electorally achieving having this nation being led by half-wits smart enough to actually develop Australian uranium, coal and gas for the benefit of Australian will not happen in either of our lifetimes combined. The ideological possession of climate change runs deep in a population so spineless and dim that it collectively agreed to mRNA injections so they could get permission to go to the football. This nation state and its people will deserve every moment of its impending economic collapse.
You must be referring to Chris Bowen.
Not just him- Howard, KRudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison too!
LOL you are correct. The decline of our energy resilence has been going on since at least Johnny was PM. 30yrs. He even mandated Ethanol as a kickback to Malindra who gave LNP donations. According to David Archibald Ethanol has a lousy energy density plus its hygroscopic and rusts out your fuel tank if its mild steel. E10 or E20 is cheap for a reason.
Yes, no ducking out of sight for any of them. the stupid, inept or rat cunning.
Donald Horne was right.
Out of every crisis lies an opportunity. This is one. The two major parties could put aside their electoral calculations to forge an action plan to immediately fix this. It will probably need to loop in the States but only once they’ve agreed on the plan; otherwise it will be hijacked just as Victoria and WA did during COVID. An additional benefit would be to at last neuter the de facto veto the Greens exercise over nuclear power and fossil fuels; in the face of the current existential crisis, they can be exposed as the extremist denialists that they are.
Nope it would take more than 3yrs to fix, so none are interested in starting something they can't take credit for. I recall being told Nuclear was not suited for Australia, as our population was too small. now after adding 8-10M bodies in 25yrs, It's too expensive. But queuing up to buy Fuel on the open market is alright. How odd that is. We have reached NETT ZERO (in competiveness!)
Responses from Liberal and Labor-Green. As joint collaborators they will now resort to finger wagging. In Labor's case trotting out Thistlewaite, Murray Watt, Andy Charlton and Bowen in the notable absence of the appointed fuel czarina who has quietly disappeared.
And where are the wise teal women? No interest in sovereignty either.
No, but they will pontificate and obfuscate to please their constituencies.
Absolutely not. Short term gain is all they care about not a vision for the future with coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Drilling for oil, building dams and halting immigration of aliens.
Agreed. What is needed is the right sort of coal liquefaction, the right nuclear and so on. For your interest:
https://wentworthreport.com/fuel-supply-in-the-long-term/
https://wentworthreport.com/albanese-and-report-117/
https://wentworthreport.com/the-solution-to-our-fuel-crisis/
So our fuel security is a dud, and we can blame almost the entire political spectrum in Canberra for it, the next mad rush is already upon us - data centres - when we have no way to power them, we can't even keep the lights on 24/7, no-one has clearly explained where the in-feed data is coming from and why we should suddenly build dozens of them instead of a slower build to actual (Australian) demand. We don't need more pressure on our energy systems because of this new world-wide push and our current energy mess. Are they connected to the global 15-minute cities push, it seems so.
Thanks to decades of sabotage by our politicians including the leader of the Opposition.
And he didn't warn people about wind droughts as well!
A sobering summary Chris. No surprises, its commodity trading. Australia's sovereignty is now publicly traded. The marxist march continues to trample Australia.
Australia has an estimated 800 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas from shale deposits. At one time it was predicted that Australia would become a leading gas exporter to SE Asia However, these deposits require hydraulic fracturing and onerous regulations regarding this process have greatly slowed exploitation. It is quite sad.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214790X1830234X
I recall shale oil was rejected on a cost feasibility basis as well. Was this an accurate assertion? Or was it quietly despatched by our betters?
It does remind me of the sarich invention being put aside. Maybe I am cynical.
I am not sure exactly what you are referring to. About 60% of the oil and most of the natural gas in the U.S. comes from shale basins. Gas and oil are produced from long reach horizontal wells that have been hydraulically fractured. Natural gas in the U.S. is around half the price it was 20 years ago and that is real pricing - not adjusted for inflation. Perhaps you are referring to the oil shale projects of the 1970's in which companies attempted to produce oil in situ from the Green River Oil Shale by heating.
The Beetaloo Basin the the Northern Territories (NT) of Australia is estimated to hold 500 TCF of natural gas. to economically produce will require hydraulic fracturing.
https://territorygas.nt.gov.au/onshore/beetaloo-sub-basin
Other basins in Australia also have large potential recoverable reserves. These are largely natural gas - not oil, although some condensate will likely be produced as well. However hydraulic fracturing is regulated by individual states in Australia. Until recently there was a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the NT. The moratorium has been lifted but there is still is strict regulation and lengthy permitting delays. The result is that the Beetaloo Basin produces no natural gas at present, despite its potential.
In the U.S. the contract price for natural gas is $2.91 USD per thousand cubic feet (MCF) In Australia that same MCF will cost you $13 AUD or about $9.02 USD. Given the resource potential of Australia, it is clear that this price differential is solely due to bad policies, not gas scarcity
Jory, I am very aware of what you have written. My point is we have put valid opportunities before.
Great story well told. Perhaps if the nation grinds to a halt for a month the uniparties will be hammered until they see the light. Nothing like a dose of public unrest to start the backbench worrying about their prospects in the next election leading to a re-examination of their policy platform. The One Nation vote in SA indicates a hunger for change. Labor can free itself of the green agenda. Bowen and his ilk have to go. Let him and Turnbull migrate to the greens. We need energy at a fraction of the current cost if we are to have a future. Line up to get some Chinese infrastructure. Ditch ARCUS.
Let’s remember the uniparty got us here! Just because Labor are in power it doesn’t mean you can sheet all the blame home to them! Successive governments have all contributed and caused the problem. They are pretty incompetent but I like their light touch. No patronising speeches like we got from Morrison and the Covid premiers.
There certainly needs to change but I have no faith in the coalition. Turnbull’s mate Hastie would a disaster. Taylor- Let’s see.
I am so tired of Liberal failed candidates and party members caning the Labor government on Sky. Hypocrites the lot of them.
Hastie is a lefty.
Hastie may (?) be unwittingly (?) part of the marxist march into religion, Christian and a few others.
Social justice is the great enabler.The new Pope is caught up in it, as was his predecessor.
Islam is a favourite with activists simply because it opposes the West. More than a few Australian politicians are on the wagon. It will bite hard.
Btw I am a Catholic and have watched the march first hand. Its not a recent phenomenon.
I wouldn’t go that far. Hastie is a Christian and a conservative but obviously has anti war views which are understandable and strange considering he was part of SAS. Maybe a bit of TDS too.
See the article by Rebecca Weisser in the Spectator dated 5th April, 2026. He comes across as a nasty, simple-minded lefty. He is hanging out with Malcolm Turnbull! I can email it to you. davidarchibaldperth@gmail.com
I haven’t subscribed to the Spectator for a while. I never read the English writers except for two and never the American ones so it’s just not worth it. I can probably find it.
Obviously Australia has had years of politicians and governments who have received phenominal salaries but not one of them has had the brains and guts to stand up and say that Australia needs to be able to support herself and fuel is a basic necessity so DIG BABY DIG
What company has the available finance to support Australia digging for oil? To stop this happening in Australia is ludicrous. Australia is sitting on a knife edge.We hope and prey that Australia can get a share of the oil if/when the Gulf of Hormez? is opened or we die and wait for China/Russia to help us. No doubt money will be involved. The Australian government is useless. Australia is sitting on millions of barrels of oil but nothing positive and helpful is done.
It needs a courages political leader to take this head on, with lots of good arguments (include thos one), thick skin and persistence to correct Australia's direction. I hope A Taylor takes a good look at T Abbott and copies that style. He might get there. But, boy, is it needed.
Abbott did not act as he spoke.
It enabled the Turnbull ambush.
Thank-you for your work - from a regional Australian fighting with the local community against the non-renewables / globalist wealth transfer social, ecological and financial disaster.
The ‘Unreliables’ Vs non-renewables is more accurate..
What if those 700,000 interstate movements were made by electrified rail? How much liquid fuel would that save? The intra state can use diesel and electric within cities and towns. There is a future that doesn’t lean so heavily on fossil fuels in the near term and, ultimately, not at all in the future
Except that we lack power
But please do not mention nuclear in Australia. The rest of the world must all be in error. Are they?
And the will.
Testicular fortitude, a rare political commodity in the land of 'No Worries'
There was a Senate inquiry into fuel security in 2015: https://wentworthreport.com/the-senate-inquiry-of-2015-into-fuel-security/
I had a look at your submission, and it was pretty much full of the details, that engineers could have planned and built systems to get us the energy security we need. Sadly we closed 2 more refineries since then. Using our abundance of coal to liquid fuels seems the smart move, even if it costs $2B, we should do it.
I started my career in the New Zealand Ministry of Energy in 1982. The Ministry was established post the 1970s oil shocks including to support the then National Government’s so called Think Big projects, a series of state supported energy substitution projects. Some proved wise in retrospect, but many became white elephants before they were even completed. This experience led my generation of policy wonks to be sceptical of basing government policy on what’s just happened (you will usually get it wrong) and to get interested in competition, markets and privatisation. Your article can equally support an argument that it maybe wise for Australia (amongst other things) to focus on being a rich country so that it can afford to compete for spot energy purchase on the rare occasions that there are shortages. Over reacting and over-insuring for rare manageable events is often not sensible for individuals as it is for countries.
South africa via Sasol was producing oil from coal in the 1950’s Rhodesia was producing ethanol from their sugar cane to supplement the lack of fuel due to sanction in the ‘70’s