The Oil Drum

This is the first in a series of posts co-authored with Phoenix and Matt Mushalik. In my previous post I took a high-level look at solutions for Australia. This post starts the process of iterating down from the high-level view. It assumes that we will not be able to instantly convert to sustainable solutions - we need to get there in steps. This article is co-authored with Phoenix, a qualified mechanical engineer who has been working in the infrastructure construction industry for over 28 years. He has held senior manangement positions with a number of organisations delivering projects to key energy providers. These projects have included oil refineries, power stations, LNG plants and gas processing facilities. He currently works as the National Manager – Power Generation for a major Australian construction group.

Action Plan

1.0 INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT

Transport is critical to the functioning of our society. If Australia’s transportation stopped tomorrow, then most of us would be starving in the dark a few weeks later.

Yet this is exactly the scenario that is emerging. The vast majority of transport in Australia is fuelled by oil. Without oil, transport stops. And we are being warned from every direction that our oil supplies are no longer secure.

This scenario will be the most serious threat experienced by our society since the Second World War. This is the first in a series of discussions that look at ways to secure Australia’s oil based energy security into the future. Over the next few weeks we will look at short and long term goals for personal and industrial transport.

The last afternoon of the Forum was aimed at addressing the opportunities that lay in addressing the demand issue. From that point of view the presentations focused more on the need to develop some form of policy, with the emphasis more on the global, rather than the local level, although that was also discussed. Unfortunately I was not able to stay long enough to hear the discussion on Julian Darley's point as to natural gas peaking worldwide. But to answer the question as to whether I misheard, given that Julian has already written a book on Natural Gas Supplies, I don't think I did, since he also tied it into a comment on LNG. However, since I was not the only one there, if others, especially those who stayed for the discussion know better, please say so.