Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support the previous speaker in his comments relating to the Kokoda Track. Tonight I want to talk about the price of fuel. It is very topical across Australia, but I want to focus on a privately owned oil explorer, producer and refiner in my electorate of Maranoa. IOR Energy Pty Ltd and its group of companies manufacture some 50 million litres of diesel fuel per annum at refineries in the west of my electorate, specifically at Eromanga and Cadappan. These are very remote parts of my electorate and the oil being produced is coming out of the Eromanga and Cooper basins. IOR is the only wholly owned independent Queensland distributor of fuels and is delivering this fuel into very remote parts of my electorate. Fuel price is a particularly important element of what this company is doing, but first I want to say that, as we all know, in the past in this country many of the smaller oil companies such as IOR have been consolidated or swallowed up by the major multinationals. I commend this small company for still being there. I feel very proud of their operations—their refineries being in the Cooper Basin, in the remote parts of Maranoa.

The vision of IOR, Independent Oil Refineries, is to provide lower fuel prices and improved services to rural and regional communities in Queensland. The company has been rolling out unmanned diesel refuelling outlets. The company’s only product is diesel. The independent distribution points comprise very large tanks that are strategically located in some of the major towns and on some of the highways—not always major highways—where major trucking companies, mining companies and large users of diesel can fill up their own vehicles by swiping an electronic card, which gives them access to the large storage tanks.

It is certainly a new concept in the distribution of fuel and it certainly brings down the overhead costs that would normally be associated with running a service station, but the important point is that when you go to most, if not all, fuel distribution service stations today you serve yourself in any case. The difference between this company, where you serve yourself and buy from a large bulk supplier, and a major service station is zero because you still serve yourself. During the winter sitting break I saw some of the distribution points at Thargomindah and near Windorah. They are just getting under way. Obviously they have gained council and government approval as a fuel is stored there and they have to ensure that they comply with regulations.

I want to talk about the price at which they are able to deliver the diesel that they produce themselves in their own refineries for sale in remote communities. In this place people often say, ‘Fuel in the outback will be far more expensive than in the cities.’ That is true if you buy through the retail outlets of some of the multinational oil companies, but it is not true if you buy through this company. I will cite some of the prices that they are charging for their diesel, albeit that it is done through bulk sale and you serve yourself. Thus far, those benefiting from this initiative are probably major trucking companies, mining companies and local governments. These are prices stated on the day. On 7 August in Clermont the price from a major multinational outlet was 152.5c a litre; from IOR it was 126.84c a litre. I can go through a whole list. At Boulia it was 149.9c a litre through a major multinational oil company’s retail outlet; IOR had it listed for 126.84c a litre, a saving of 23c per litre. This demonstrates that the major oil companies can do better. They do not have to be selling fuel at the prices that we are seeing at service stations around Australia. I commend the actions of IOR. (Time expired)