1345.4 - SA Stats, Sep 2006
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/09/2006
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FUEL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) compiles annual energy (and fuel) statistics for Australia and the states. Production of primary fossil fuels Primary fuels are naturally occurring, or indigenous, fuels. The following graphs compare the production of selected (only those which are found in South Australia) fossil fuels; production of the non-fossil fuel, Uranium Oxide, has been excluded. Because the available data were provided in physical units (kilotonnes, Megalitres, Gigalitres), the quantities of each fuel have been expressed relative to the amounts produced in 1999-2000 to enable meaningful comparisons to be made. Thus, the 1999-2000 data have an index of 100.0, and subsequent years' data are expressed relative to this reference year. For both South Australia and Australia the production of crude oil steadily declined between 2000-01 to 2004-05, with South Australian production decreasing by about 36% and Australian production by about 34%. Unlike the national trend, South Australian production of natural gas and ethane fell each year between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, where the 2004-05 production was about 29% lower than in 1999-2000. PRODUCTION OF PRIMARY FOSSIL FUELS, South Australia Source: Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), 2006 PRODUCTION OF PRIMARY FOSSIL FUELS, Australia Source: Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), 2006 Consumption of selected fuels The measurement of fuel consumption is expressed in (standardised) energy units, Petajoules (PJ), where 1 PJ is equivalent to the energy provided by about 278 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Increasingly, from 1999-2000, natural gas has been the main source of energy used in South Australia. In 1999-2000 about 120 PJ of the state's energy consumption were provided by natural gas, with petroleum products accounting for 119 PJ, and electricity 46 PJ; these amounts represented about 31%, 31% and 12% respectively of the state's energy consumption. Corresponding amounts in 2004-05 were, natural gas 136.3 PJ (33%), petroleum products 118 PJ (29%) and electricity 51.7 PJ (13%). The national consumption of natural gas was consistently below that of petroleum products (excluding crude oil and other refinery inputs); natural gas accounted for 924.3 PJ of energy consumed in 1999-2000 and 1057.8 PJ in 2004-05, while petroleum products accounted for 1778.1 PJ and 1934.6 PJ respectively. CONSUMPTION OF SELECTED FUELS, South Australia Source: Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), 2006 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS The Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) produces annual inventories of GHGE. The major greenhouse gases (GHG) are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The quantities of these gases are standardised to kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (kt_CO2e) by multiplying the physical quantities of the gases by factors known as Global Warming Potentials (GWP). The GWP provides a measure of the relative atmospheric warming effect of a unit mass of gas when compared with the same mass of carbon dioxide. For example, methane has a GWP of 21, which means that 1 tonne of methane gas has the same warming effect as 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Fuel combustion activities Most (more than one half) of carbon dioxide GHGE arise from the combustion of fossil fuels. Between 1999-2000 and 2003-04, carbon dioxide from South Australian fuel combustion activities decreased by just under 1%, but between 2002-03 and 2003-04 the decrease was just over 5%. This contrasts with the picture at the Australian level which shows fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by about 9% between 1999-2000 and 2003-04 and rose 2.5% between 2002-03 and 2003-04. GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, Fuel combustion and total, Carbon dioxide and total, South Australia Source: SA Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2004, Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), 2006 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, Fuel combustion, Carbon dioxide and total, South Australia Source: SA Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2004, Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), 2006 LAND USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY (LUCF) Vegetation (forests in particular) absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; it is said to be a carbon dioxide sink. Planting new vegetation (afforestation/reforestation) increases the environment's ability to dispose of carbon dioxide, whereas removal of vegetation (deforestation), by harvesting, fires, pests, diminishes this ability. Clearing of vegetation also produces GHGE from the burning or decay of cleared vegetation and changes in soil carbon. Other than in 2001-02, South Australia showed a net negative result for LUCF over the period 1999-2000 to 2003-04; that is there is a net sink effect due to LUCF. Nationally, the net LUCF was positive, which means that there is a net carbon dioxide emission effect. LAND USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY, Greehouse gas emissions (+)/removals (-), South Australia Source: SA Greenhouse Gas inventory 2004, Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), 2006 LAND USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY, Greenhouse gas emissions (+)/removals (-), Australia Source: National Greenhouse Gas inventory, 2004, Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), 2006 Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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