Fed: Oil explorers warn of falling self sufficiency

AAP General News (Australia)
04-09-2001
Fed: Oil explorers warn of falling self sufficiency

CANBERRA, April 9 AAP - Australia will have to rely on obtaining defence petroleum
stocks from politically unstable regions with domestic oil production tipped to fall by
40 per cent over the next decade, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration
Association warned today.

Association executive director Barry Jones said Australia would have to import oil
and petrol for the Australian Defence Force from Singapore or the Middle East.

He said Singapore was not a problem but countries around it had not been particularly
stable and the Middle East remained particularly volatile.

"We are looking at running our defence forces on fuel coming from increasingly politically
unstable sources with long supply chains," he said on ABC radio.

"The probability of losing about half our self-sufficiency is about 50 per cent. I
would not regard it as extreme."

AAP mb/gmw

KEYWORD: APPEA JONES

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