Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) Transformer oil has different characteristics to hydraulic and lubricant oils so used transformer oil tends to be re-refined separately from those oils. In 2009–10 about 4.3 million litres of Category 1 re-refined oil was transformer oil and the remaining 39.8 million litres was hydraulic or lubricant oil.

Hydraulic and lubricant oils are similar and these used oils tend to be re-refined together to produce re-refined base oil, from which either hydraulic or lubricant oil can then be made. Data on the proportion of hydraulic versus lubricant oil produced from re-refined base oil is not available.

(2) No to both parts of the question.