About the review
In 2009, the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (RET) conducted a review of petroleum terminals suitable for importing crude oil and refined petroleum products into Australia.
The review was conducted in response to one of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recommendations in the 2007 report, Petrol Prices and Australian Consumers to audit terminals suitable for importing refined petrol in Australia.
The department engaged ACIL Tasman to complete the audit review.
The finalised audit review, Petroleum Import Infrastructure in Australia, was released by the Minister for Resources and Energy on 24 August 2009 (see Related documents).
The review concluded that existing infrastructure and planned investments would result in spare capacity emerging in all jurisdictions except the Northern Territory over the two years following December 2008.
It also concluded that, in general, the (then) current operating environment and access arrangements did not impose material competition constraints for importers of petroleum products.
The audit made several recommendations, including:
- to review of the costs and benefits of retaining different fuel standards in Western Australia
- consideration be given to measures for ensuring that the Australian Government’s statistics collection captures all petroleum product imports, relevant stock level indicators and storage capacity at all import facilities
- to review planning and approvals processes to ensure efficiency and consistency across jurisdictions.
An executive summary of the main report was also released (see Related documents).
Related documents
More information
For more information about the Petroleum Import Infrastructure in Australia report email TransportFuels@ret.gov.au.