Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brockman for his question. He's a very proud supporter of the great resources state of Western Australia. To maintain our strong economy we must continue to develop the resources of our nation. It's also important to continue to do that to help secure our nation. In history, in the past, we were a proud producer of oil. In fact, less than 20 years ago Australia produced 96 per cent of its raw petroleum needs domestically. Since that time, Bass Strait has declined, as has the North West Shelf, and today we produce less than 50 per cent of our raw petroleum needs. So we should look to secure more supply, and that's exactly what the federal government is doing. We're not going to find more oil unless we drill, explore and do the science you need to do to find what's underground. Together with the West Australian government, the federal government has funded a drill well about 214 kilometres east of Marble Bar—in country I'm sure that Senator Brockman knows well—that is an exciting prospect for a future oil and gas frontier. The core well is about a kilometre down. We've got about a kilometre to go. It should be done by the end of the year with results known in mid-next year.

Why this is exciting is that the early estimates are that there could be something in the order of 860 billion barrels of oil in the Canning Basin. Not all that will be recoverable but even if five or 10 per cent can be recovered, which is often a recovery rate used in the industry, about 43 billion barrels of oil could be there. That is equivalent to the Permian Basin in the United States, which the United States Geological Survey updated last year to contain 46 billion barrels of oil. So this is a potential world-class resource—

Senator Whish-Wilson interjecting—