Australian crude and fuel imports from Brunei

Salamat Datang

Australian Prime Minister Albanese in Brunei April 2026

Previous post:

25/3/2021
Brunei peak oil – golden opportunity for China’s Belt and Road Initiative

https://crudeoilpeak.info/brunei-peak-oil-golden-opportunity-for-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative

From the Australian PM’s website:

Joint statement on energy and food security

15 Apr 2026

In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthen energy and food security, to support the flow of essential goods between our two countries, including petroleum oils, such as diesel and crude oil, as well as agriculture and agri-food essentials and key agricultural inputs such as urea, to avoid unjustified import and export restrictions and to notify and consult each other on any disruptions with ramifications on the trade of energy and food related supplies.

Anthony Albanese and Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah have agreed to work together to strengthen energy supply chain resilience (AAP: Bianca de Marchi)

One stakeholder is missing on the above photo:

Hengyi CEO Chen Lian Cai
https://www.bizbrunei.com/2021/01/hengyi-industries-records-us3-5-billion-revenue-in-2020/

The role of Hengyi Industries Sdn. Bhd. in Brunei is explained in the above introductory article.
Let’s have a look at oil statistics:

Fig 1: Peak oil in both Australia and Brunei

The uptick in Australian oil production comes from condensate production in Australia’s offshore gas fields on the west coast.

Fig 2: Australia’s crude, condensate and LPG production vs exports

The graph shows part of the wrong policies of consecutive Australian governments. In 2010 I proposed to then Energy Minister Martin Ferguson in a meeting booked at Rudd’s Cabinet Community meeting to assist the private sector to build a condensate refinery. I was told that Australia can always buy oil. That in a nutshell was the energy policy. The current Prime Minster is now forced belatedly to deal with the consequences.

Fig 2: Australian crude imports from Brunei

Australian crude oil imports from Brunei are:
• 12% of all Australian crude imports
• 21% of Brunei crude production

Fig 3: Brunei’s refinery output (Jodi data)

Fig 4: Brunei crude exports 2013-2024

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/brunei/crude-oil-exports

Fig 5: Australian petrol imports from Brunei are negligible

Fig 6: From Brunei 9% of total diesel imports

That is an important share. Australian diesel imports from Brunei started when the Chinese Hengyi refinery opened. Hengyi capacity 175 kb/d.

Fig 7: Australian diesel imports by country of origin in 2025

Jet fuel imports from Brunei: nil

Conclusion:

Albanese will have forgotten peak oil but blessed are the innocent.