More oil discoveries, please

Australian liquids output continues to decline, as the main producing fields mature. Despite the setback to production resulting from a gas-processing plant explosion earlier this year, the outlook for growth in natural gas output and exports is much rosier, as the country harnesses its huge reserves. Coal, however, remains the country's dominant export fuel. Derek Bamber writes

AUSTRALIA'S output of crude oil and condensates continues to fall as fields, particularly those in the Gippsland Basin and the Timor Sea, mature. The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (Abare) estimates output in the year to end-June 2004 was down by about 15%, to 179.26m barrels, compared with the previous 12 months. Furthermore, the rate of decline will only be slowed in the year to end-June 2005, not turned around, as new fields are brought on stream. Output is predicted to be around 177m barrels for the year. The first of the new projects to come on stream was ConocoPhillips' Bayu/Undan gas-recycling operation in the Zone of Co-operation between East Timor and Austra