The Energy System of Australia

Preface

The same preface is used on all posts on this site about energy systems, so you may wish to skip down to Australia’s Energy Supply.

This site uses data from the IEA¹ and BP.² The latest year of BP’s data is 2018, whereas the IEA’s is 2017. Despite this, some charts here use IEA data because BP doesn’t fully account for solid biofuels, and in some instances doesn’t provide adequate detail.

A conventional representation of an energy system is shown below.

The term ‘total primary energy supply’ (TPES) describes, or accounts for, energy in its primary form prior to any conversions such as coal to electricity, whereas energy in forms purchased and used by the consumer, such as electricity, is accounted for separately as ‘total final consumption’ (TFC). For simplicity this site uses the terms ‘energy supply’ and ‘energy consumption’ respectively. Information about electricity is shown at the bottom of this page.

Energy supplied by renewables (shown as non-combustibles in the above diagram) cannot be directly compared with energy supplied by fossil fuels because renewables have natural forms of primary energy (sun, wind etc). To overcome this, for each renewable energy source, which currently all generate electricity, an equivalent quantity of primary energy is determined, allowing the primary energy supplied by all energy sources to be compared. It’s convention to calculate for each quantity of renewable electricity, the quantity of energy that would be required to be input to a thermal (fossil fuelled) power station of average efficiency, in order to output an equivalent amount. This method therefore describes the quantity of fossil fuels displaced by renewables, and is explained further in the post About Energy Systems.

Australia’s Energy Supply

Australia’s fossil fuel CO₂ emissions (i.e. energy related CO₂ emissions) are shown below.

Australia’s energy supply is shown below in chart 2 and expanded in chart 3.

Australia’s energy supply is almost solely fossil fuelled; a product of successive shameless governments, elected by an indifferent society vacuously immersed in oil consumption.

Annual changes of Australia’s energy supply are shown in chart 4. Fossil fuels again outpaced renewables in 2018.

Charts 5 and 6 show Australia’s energy supply by share, which has consistently been about 90% fossil fuelled, and remained so in 2017, the latest year of available data. For comparison, the world reached a maximum of 79% during 2000 to 2010, since dropping to 77% in 2017.⁸ Obviously for the share of renewable energy to replace that of fossil fuels in chart 5, radical social transformation would be required.

Numerical values below simply show little change.

A measure of carbonisation is the carbon intensity of the energy supply, shown below, which is the mass of carbon dioxide emitted per Joule of energy supplied. Chart 7 shows that in 2017 Australia’s energy supply was more carbon intensive (‘dirtier’) than China’s,¹⁰ and the world.¹¹

Australia’s Energy Consumption

As shown in figure 1 above, energy consumption describes energy after conversions. For example, some energy supplied by coal is converted and consumed as electricity, and the rest is instead combusted and consumed in industrial applications (e.g. steel manufacture) and domestic applications (e.g. cooking).

Australia’s energy consumption for year 2017 is shown below in chart 8. Just over half was consumed as oil and oil products, just over 20% as electricity and just under 20% as gas. Of the electricity generated, 63% was coal fired (almost as great a share as China at 68%), gas was 20%, wind 5% and solar PV 3%.

The following two charts below show Australia’s energy consumption over time by energy source and by economic sector. Oil consumption by the transport sector is Australia’s largest form of energy consumption.

The following charts show energy consumption in each economic sector. 

Chart 11 shows electricity generation over time.

In 2016 Australia had 23 operating coal fired power stations, with a combined capacity of 25GW.^{19 20} Based on announced closures and the expectation of a 50 year operating life, as specified by Transgrid,²¹ all but Bluewaters 1 and 2 power stations in WA are expected to close prior to 2052 – that amounts to 98%²² of coal power generation capacity, which in 2017 was 63% of total electricity generation.^{19 20}

Less detailed but more recent data is available from BP, and plotted in the charts below. Chart 12 shows shares of electricity generation in 2018.

Chart 13 and 14 compare electricity generation for years 2017 and 2018. Although BP classify hydro separately from renewables, it is of course also renewable.

Chart 15 shows the changes of electricity generation between years 2017 and 2018. Australia’s total electricity generation in 2018 was 261TWh and therefore fossil fuels decreased by 3% of total (-8/261) and renewables increased by 3.8% (10/261).

Australia’s Fossil Fuel Exports

Although the UN’s climate treaty accounts for carbon emitted from fossil fuel exports within the country of the fuel’s consumption, Australia bears the moral responsibility for placing fossil fuels on the international market. This is the same manner in which a meth-cook is responsible for supplying a market: both result in short-term gain, long-term ruin, because as long as fossil fuels are sold, they will be burned. Shown here is that Australia’s fossil fuel energy exports as a share of national export value, and on a global scale, are massive and amount to a carbon-bubble.

The climate impact of Australia’s fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas) exports ranks behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia exports in terms of global emissions, according to a major new report from the Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program.
The new research also finds that in absolute terms Australia is the world’s fifth largest miner of fossil fuels, ranking behind only China, USA, Russia and Saudi Arabia. On a per capita basis, Australia is on par with Saudi Arabia.

New Analysis: Australia Ranks Third for Fossil Fuel Export.²⁴

The quality of Australian healthcare, education, defence and infrastructure is maintained by income from these exports. The voting population prospers and votes for more, while ignoring that their prosperity was stolen from young Australians.

Fossil fuels exports in 2017-18 were 24.3% of Australia’s total export value.²⁵ Coal was Australia’s second largest export at 15% share, liquified natural gas (LNG) 7.7% and crude oil 1.6%. LNG is predominately methane that is liquified by cooling to -162℃, thereby compressing it and making it economic to export in specifically designed and built tankers.²⁶ (Natural gas piped domestically is also mostly methane but not liquified.²⁷ LPG (liquid petroleum gas) is predominantly propane or butane.²⁸)

Australia has become the world’s largest exporter of LNG,²⁹ and as shown below, LNG’s share is expected to at least double and therefore rival coal and iron ore as Australia’s largest exports. The consequence of this would be to increase the share of fossil fuel exports from about a quarter to about a third of total annual export value (i.e. 15% + 1.6% + 7.7% × 2 = 32%).

In 2016, $AUD124.2 million was spent on coal exploration in Australia,³¹ and $AUD1.4 billion was spent on oil and gas exploration.³²

The Australian federal government’s priorities are blatant and contradictory to the interests of young Australians –

The outlook for the Australian resources sector is bright.
By 2030, Asia will produce more than half of the world’s economic output; consume 40 per cent of its energy; and be home to a middle class of almost 3.5 billion people.((https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/australias-national-resources-statement/the-australian-resources-sector-significance-and-opportunities)) By virtue of our geographic location, abundant reserves of resources, skilled workforce and strong mining services sector, Australia is well positioned to be a key supplier for the region. 

Demand will increase in both traditional commodities, such as coal, iron ore, liquefied natural gas (LNG), base metals, such as copper and nickel, and emerging minerals, like lithium and rare earths which have many applications for the digital age (Table 1).

The Australian resources sector – significance and opportunities, published by the Australian federal government in 2019³⁶

The development of the east coast coal seam gas (CSG) industry is a recent example of the development of a new national wealth centre. The development of the CSG industry in Queensland led to more than $60 billion being invested in three new LNG export projects at Gladstone over the last decade—conservatively equivalent to 20 – 25 per cent of the Queensland economy around the time the projects were commissioned.³⁶

There are several areas where this is again possible, including:

• The Beetaloo Sub-basin in the Northern Territory which has a world-class shale gas resources and is home to more than three quarters of Northern Territory’s perspective shale gas resources.

• The Galilee Basin in Queensland which has more than 29 billion tonnes of coal reserves identified following a boom in greenfield exploration. The Galilee Basin could also contain significant reserves of gas. 

• The Great Australian Bight which is one of Australia’s largest frontier basins and could have enormous oil and gas potential.

• The Canning and Browse Basins which hold immense oil and gas potential. 

The Australian resources sector – significance and opportunities, published by the Australian federal government in 2019³⁶

Does the Australian government participate in international climate negotiations with an aim to prevent climate catastrophe, or to secure the economic value of its fossil fuel exports?

Australia’s vast current gas and coal exports, and anticipated expansions of these, are detailed at the bottom of this page.

Discussion

Australia’s energy system in 2017 was 89% fossil fuelled, and the share of fossil fuels in Australia’s exports in 2018 totalled 24%. Australia has become the world’s third largest exporter of fossil fuels, the largest LNG exporter, the largest metallurgical coal exporter, and the second largest thermal coal exporter. Expansion of fossil fuel extraction is underway and the Australian federal government is vehemently promoting and supporting further extraction of prodigious scale.³⁷ About two thirds of domestic electricity generation will need to be replaced over the next 30 years, for which there is no plan and Australian emissions continue to grow despite extensive death of the Great Barrier Reef and clear scientific projections of further devastation.

What proportion of voting Australians are aware of the fossil fuel exports described here, and what proportion feel responsible for the consequences to be faced by their children and grandchildren?

Australia was founded on misery, as a penal colony,³⁸ and successive Australian federal governments have conducted themselves in a miserable manner preventing the reduction of emissions, and not telling the truth to the Australian people. Future misery has now been sown by Australia’s fossil fuel exports, but this isn’t enough – the federal government is promoting more.

Australia’s Fossil Fuel Exports In Detail

Australia’s Current Gas Exports

The astonishing scale of major Australian gas extraction and export projects are detailed below –

Gorgon LNG⁴¹

Largest single resource project in Australia’s history, costing $US54 billion⁴⁰ and producing 15Mtpa (millions of tonnes per annum) of gas (6% of 2015 global trade⁴²). 40 year lifespan and began operating in 2016. Consists of a subsea gas gathering system, onshore LNG plant site, buildings and services, and an offloading jetty.
Gas is extracted from 18 offshore wells using a subsea gas gathering system, instead of offshore platforms. Drilling of the wells was done at depths of over 9km (6mi) beneath the seabed. More then 800km (500mi) of pipeline is laid offshore and onshore. The subsea installation is on the largest in the world with more than 250,000 tons of steel pipe and structures, equalling the weight of three aircraft carriers. The pipe is so strong that it can span 270m (300 yds) unsupported.
The LNG plant site, service buildings and jetty are located on Barrow Island, classified a “Class A” nature reserve with 378 species of native plants, 13 species of mammals and 43 species of reptiles. Here gas is either converted to LNG and offloaded to tankers for export, or supplied to the domestic market.
The jetty rests on 56 concrete caissons each weighing an average of 2,500 tonnes.⁴³
Liquefaction of the gas to compress it involves removing the CO₂ that makes up 14%, otherwise it would form a solid. The LNG plant site includes a CO₂ sequestration plant that’s used to greenwash the Gorgon project.
The amount of steel used in the LNG plant site is more than 4 times that used in the Sydney Harbour bridge. It contains 51 liquefaction modules, each heavier than 3,500 cars and relies on 584MW of power generated onsite from 5 gas turbine modules. These self contained power plants were manufactured in Italy by GE⁴⁴ and contain a gas turbine (manufactured in France), 10km (6mi) of structural welding, and 19km (12 mi) of electrical cable. Each gas turbine module weighs 2,300 tons, as much as 4 double-decker Airbus jets. These were loaded onto ships and transported 20,000km (12,000mi) to Barrow Island.
At least 1,558 native animals were killed during construction and classified as accidental deaths.⁴⁵
Gorgon is currently being expanded, spending $US4 billion drilling 11 new wells, expanding the subsea gas gathering system and pipeline.⁴⁶
Participants: Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and JERA.

The North West Shelf Project⁴⁷

Cost $US24 billion, produces 17Mtpa for international and Australian domestic markets.
Consists of: (a) Onshore Karratha Gas Plant that compresses gas and offloads LNG to export vessels; (b) North Rankin Complex that consists of North Rankin A and B offshore platforms, joined by two 100m (300ft) bridges; (c) Goodwyn A offshore platform, gas is piped from here over 100km (62mi) to the Karratha Gas Plant; (d) Angel offshore platform, connected to the North Rankin Complex via 50km (31mi) subsea pipeline. Not normally manned and instead operated remotely from the Rankin Complex; and (e) Okha floating oil production vessel, moored and connected to a riser turret which is connected to flexible flow lines from three seabed oil fields. Crude oil is offloaded from the Okha vessel via a flexible line directly to bulk tankers, while a seabed pipeline exports LPG-rich gas to the North Rankin Complex, before being piped 135km (84mi) to the Karratha Gas Plant.
Participants: Woodside, BHP, BP, Chevron, Japan Australia LNG and Shell.

The North West Shelf Expansion⁴⁸ is currently underway, aims to exploit six offshore hydrocarbon fields with 8 production wells tied back to Goodwyn A platform via 35km (22mi) long subsea pipeline. Budget was US$2 billion.

The Bayu-Undan⁴⁹

Commissioned in 2006, produces 3.7Mtpa and gas expected to be fully extracted by 2022. Located offshore in the Timor Sea. Australia has delayed to ratify an agreement with Timor Leste for sharing the profits from this gas field 90%/10% between Australia and Timor Leste respectively.⁵⁰
Gas is extracted and compressed in-situ before being piped to the mainland as LNG. Consists of: (a) two joined offshore platforms forming the Central Production and Processing (CPP) complex; (b) a floating storage and offloading facility 2km (1.2mi) from the CPP; (c) an unmanned wellhead platform 7km (4.4mi) from the CPP; (d) LNG production facility in Darwin (‘Darwin LNG’) that offloads the LNG onto tankers; and (e) a 500km (311mi) long subsea pipeline connecting the CPP to Darwin LNG.
Participants: ConocoPhillips, Santos, Inpex, ENI, Tokyo Timor Sea Resources, Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Electric and Chibu Electric.

The Barossa Project⁵¹

Offshore from Darwin. Being built and will ensure continued operation of Darwin LNG once all gas has been extracted from Bayu-Undan.
Consists of: (a) floating gas extraction, production, storage and offloading vessel; (b) subsea gas gathering system; and (c) a 260km (162mi) subsea pipeline connecting the vessel to Darwin LNG.
Participants: ConocoPhillips, SK E&S Australia and Santos.

Curtis Island LNG⁵²

Cost $US46 billion, produces 25.3Mtpa. Located on Curtis Island next to the Great Barrier Reef. Produces LNG from coal seam gas for export and the Australian domestic market.⁵³
Participants: Shell, China National Offshore Oil Corporation,Tokyo Gas, ConocoPhillips, Origin, Sinopec, Santos, Petronas, Total, and Kogas.

Pluto LNG⁵⁴

Cost $US11 billion and produces 4Mtpa. Consists of: (a) Onshore Pluto LNG Park gas compression and offloading facility; (b) Pluto-A offshore platform, not normally manned; (c) seabed gas pipeline connecting the two; and (d) Pluto Support Centre in Perth from where remote operations are controlled.
Participants: Woodside, Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas.

Wheatstone LNG⁵⁵

Cost $US24 billion and is forecast to produce 9Mtpa. Currently being built. Consists of an offshore platform, an onshore processing facility and subsea pipeline.
Participants: Woodside, Chevron, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, Kyushu Electric Power Company and PE Wheatstone.

Greater Enfield⁵⁶

Currently being expanded. The Ngujima-Yin floating gas extraction, production, storage and offloading vessel moored above the Vincent oilfield. Will also extract oil from two other oilfields using subsea pipelines 31km (19mi) long.
Participants: Woodside and Mitsui E&P Australia.

Prelude FLNG⁵⁷

Cost $US13 billion and will produce 3.5Mtpa. Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) is a ‘revolutionary’ technology that will allow Shell to access offshore gas fields that would otherwise be too costly or difficult to develop.Currently being commissioned.⁵⁸ 488m long and 74m wide making it the world’s largest FLNG platform. Has thrusters to ensure stability during offloading but no form of propulsion. Will extract gas from 7 wells and employ an onboard team of 120 to 140 people.
Participants: Shell, INPEX, KOGAS and OPIC.

Ichthys⁵⁹

Cost $US37 billion, over 90% complete and forecast to produce 9Mtpa of LNG, 1.6 Mt of LPG per annum and over 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak (various hydrocarbons).
Consists of: (a) Onshore processing and loading facilities near Darwin; (b) Central processing facility (CPF), which is the world’s largest semi-submersible platform; (c) nearby floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO) for offshore processing of condensate; and (d) 890km (550mi) long subsea pipeline to carry the gas to the shore. This consumed 700,000 tonnes of steel and 550,000 tonnes of concrete.
Participants: INPEX, Total, CPC Corporation Taiwan, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, JERA and Toho Gas.

Australia’s Current Coal Exports

Thermal coal is mainly used for generating electricity at coal power stations, and metallurgical coal is mainly used to make steel. Australia does not export any brown coal.

As stated above, coal was Australia’s second largest export earner at 15% of total. In 2017 Australia was the second largest exporter of thermal coal (Indonesia was the largest)⁶⁰ and the largest (by far) exporter of metallurgical coal and iron ore, each with a share of just over 50% of total global trade.^{61 62 63} This coal and ore is consumed by the countries shown below.

Australia’s coal mines are shown in the map below, with operating mines as grey circles, and developing mines as grey triangles. In 2017, Australia had 91 operating black coal mines.⁶⁵

The coal export industry is serviced by 10 coal terminals at six ports along the eastern coast of Australia. Port ownership is a combination of public and private interests.

A number of new coal terminal and expansion projects have been completed to increase capacity to approximately 600 million tonnes per annum to meet expected long-term global growth, particularly from China and India.

Minerals and Petroleum in Australia | A Guide for Investors published by the Australian federal government in 2017⁶⁷

Anticipated Expansions Of Australian Fossil Fuel Exports

Greater Poseidon⁶⁸

10 gas wells drilled 480km (298mi) offshore. Participants: ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy and PetroChina.

Athena⁶⁹

Gas field 130km (81mi) offshore. Participants: ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

Greater Sunrise⁷⁰

The maritime boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia intersects this gas field.
During negotiations with Timor-Leste, a whistleblower revealed the Australian government planted 200 covert listening devices in the Timor-Leste Cabinet Office at Dili. In 2018, a new agreement was signed that split profits 80% East Timor, 20% Australia. The Australian government filed criminal charges against the whistleblower and his lawyer. The whisteblower revealed the bugging operation in 2012 after learning Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had become an adviser to Woodside Petroleum, which was benefiting from the treaty. Alexander Downer stated the following about Timor-Leste: “I think they’ve made a very big mistake thinking that the best way to handle this negotiation is trying to shame Australia, is mounting abuse on our country…accusing us of being bullying and rich and so on, when you consider all we’ve done for East Timor.”^{71 72 73}
Participants: Woodside, Timor-Leste, Shell and Osaka Gas.

Barrup Hub⁷⁴

Proposal to join Pluto LNG and the North West Shelf project to form a massive LNG extraction, processing and offloading complex.

Crux⁷⁵

Shell Australia is proposing to develop the Crux gas field offshore. The design consists of a not-normally-manned platform with five wells. The facility will be connected to Prelude FLNG via a 165km (102mi) long export pipeline. A final investment decision on whether to proceed is anticipated in 2020. Crux is expected to have at least a 20-year lifespan.

Carmichael Coal Mine⁷⁶

Proposed thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, planned to be conducted by both open-cut and underground methods. The mine is proposed by Adani Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s Adani Group. The development was initially intended to represent an $AU16.5 billion investment, however, after being refused financing by over 30 financial institutions, Adani announced in 2018 that the mining operation would be downsized and self-funded to $AU2 billion.
The original design for the mine would make it the largest coal mine in Australia and one of the largest in the world.
Exports are intended to leave the country via port facilities at Hay Point and Abbot Point after being transported to the coast via rail. The proposal includes a new 189km (117mi) railway line to connect with the existing Goonyella railway line. Most of the exported coal is planned to be shipped to India.⁷⁷

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22. 1-208MW*2/25GW(↩)
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25. Total value of Australian exported goods and services during 2017 – 18 = $403.2 billion. Iron ore = $61.4 billion (61.4/403.2 = 15.2%), coal = $60.4 billion (60.4/403.2 = 15%), LNG = $30.9 billion (30.9/403.2 = 7.7%) and crude oil = $6.5 billion (6.5/403.2 = 1.6%), copied from https://www.austrade.gov.au/news/economic-analysis/australia-a-resilient-trade-performance. 15% + 7.7% + 1.6% = 24.3%(↩)
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27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas(↩)
28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquefied_petroleum_gas(↩)
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37. The initial proposal of the Carmichael coal mine would make it the largest in the world. Oil extraction in the Great Australian Bight by Equinor would see wells drilled in water 1km deeper than Deepwater Horizon and oil extraction over an area as large as the Mississippi Delta, which includes the Gulf of Mexico: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-15/australias-great-southern-reef-fears-over-oil-drilling-plans/10611140.(↩)
38. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia(↩)
39. Photo by JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parliament_House_Canberra_Dusk_Panorama.jpg(↩)
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41. https://australia.chevron.com/our-businesses/gorgon-project(↩)(↩)
42. The global trade of LNG in 2015 was 245Mtpa, p13, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/12/f34/Understanding%20Natural%20Gas%20and%20LNG%20Options.pdf(↩)
43. https://thewest.com.au/business/energy/the-day-disaster-struck-gorgon-ng-b88423525z(↩)
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