1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2012
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/05/2012
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Statistics contained in the Year Book are the most recent available at the time of preparation. In many cases, the ABS website and the websites of other organisations provide access to more recent data. Each Year Book table or graph and the bibliography at the end of each chapter provides hyperlinks to the most up to date data release where available.
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RESOURCES
Australia has large identified resources of uranium, coal and natural gas. It has the world's largest economic demonstrated resources (EDR) of uranium and brown coal and is ranked 5th in the world for black coal. For more detailed information on Australia's energy and mineral resources, see chapter 18 MINING.
Australia has substantial resources of high quality black coal. At June 2010, the EDR of black coal (table 19.2) totalled 1,288,200 petajoules (PJ), with most of these resources located in New South Wales and Queensland. Small black coal resources occur in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. Large brown coal deposits are mainly located in Victoria with other deposits in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
At June 2010, the EDR of natural gas totalled 134,504 petajoules, with the Carnarvon Basin accounting for nearly 60% of total reserves. Map 19.1 shows the extent of access to gas resources and major transmission pipelines in Australia. The total length of Australia's natural gas transmission and reticulation pipeline system as at June 2010 was 114,000 kilometres.
In the period 2000 to 2010, the EDR of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), crude oil, and brown coal each decreased, while the EDR of black coal, condensate, natural gas and uranium increased. Changes in EDRs can result from production activity, new discoveries or the reclassification of existing resources.
(b) PJ = petajoule = 1015 joules.
The net present value (NPV) of an energy resource is the expected value of the resource based on current market value, with some modifications based on depletion and economic forces. At June 2010, the NPV of Australia's primary energy resources was $339 billion (table 19.3). The energy resources with the highest NPV were black coal and natural gas, accounting for 42% and 29% of the total NPV of energy resources respectively. In the period 2000–2010, the NPV of energy resources in Australia increased from $129 billion to $340 billion (up by 162%).
Source: Australian System of National Accounts, 2009–10 (5204.0), Table 62.