THEY TOOK A DIVE

[crash]

Perhaps you can provide an example of this fierce “circling the wagons” by me, when a non-American criticizes a subject presumed to be inimitably, “American”. Specifically, an example by me.

Play the ball? I play the statement. I responded to the “your oil” quip, contained in your post. Your nationality (documented or not) is at best, anecdotal.

However, your experience in the oil industry is relevant. I posed the question “Who provides the oil for Australia’s [oil consumption] deficit?” and it remains unanswered.

My guess is that it isn’t Rwanda.

Or Darfur.

My reply of 'your oil interests' was a quote from the original statement by Cracker; "We can protect our oil interests and at the same time try to help those people"

The unfortunate fact about Australia's fuel industry is that local refiniries cannot compete with the economies of scale of nearby Asian super refiniries. This is costing local jobs, but more worryingly, once the local assets are gone, they'll never be rebuilt or re-opened and we will be glued to the tit of one of the big four's supply line out of Asia, regardless of price. This is not due to our waning reserves, only the profit driven strategies of the industry. We still have the capability to be self sufficient in automotive fuels, but market pressure has made it uneconomical to do so.

The small percentage of oil that we cannot supply ourselves is in the heavier basestocks which are mainly used for finished lubricants. Australias crudes are only capable of lighter basestocks therefore the gap is filled from some of the West Texas crudes and Middle Eastern crudes, although the shift is now moving towards Africa (Angola et al). This is a problem typical of most Western countries though.