Australian Petroleum trade deficit hits record $10.85b  

The SMH reports our oil related trade deficit has hit a record - Petroleum trade deficit hits $10.85b. Domestic production was down and imports rose by over 10%.

Australia's petroleum trade deficit rose 82 per cent to a record $10.85 billion in the last financial year, as local production fell and oil prices rose, a report shows.

Oil prices rose above of $US100 a barrel while local oil and liquids production fell 8.9 per cent drop in the year to June 30, the report by energy economic group EnergyQuest said. As a result the petroleum trade deficit for 2007/08 widened to a new record, up $5.8 billion in the previous year.

"Record high oil prices and falling production meant that Australia recorded a record petroleum trade deficit of almost $30 million a day in 2007/08," EnergyQuest chief executive Graeme Bethune said in a statement.

Total Australian petroleum production fell by 1.9 per cent to 466.3 million barrels of oil equivalent for the year, after the drop in oil output. "Australia imported 39 billion litres of crude oil, petrol, diesel and jet fuel in 2007/08 - huge growth on the 35 billion litres imported in the previous year," Mr Bethune said.

Oil output fell in most of Australia's major oil-producing basins, with the exception of the Cooper Basin in South Australia and Queensland, which rose by 14.2 per cent.

Coal seam gas (CSG) production increased by 38.9 per cent during the year to 132.9 petajoules (PJ), up from 95.7 PJ. "In less than five years the east coast has gone from facing a looming gas shortage to having more than enough gas to meet local demand and export overseas," Mr Bethune said.