NRS-12149 | Copies of submissions and transcripts of proceedings of the (Commonwealth) Royal Commission on petroleum

Full description

Comprising copies of submissions made to the Royal Commission on Petroleum which was undertaken by the Commonwealth Government and heard before Justice Collins, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Transcripts of the proceedings from 12 June-16 October 1974 are also included.

These copies were apparently held by Premier's Department.

The following descriptive details and references duplicate entry CA2031 National Archives of Australia at www.naa.gov.au.

The Royal Commission on Petroleum was established by Letters Patent issued on 12 September 1973 (Australian Government Gazette, No 129, 20 September 1973). The Honourable Wilfred Herbert Collins, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, was appointed Commissioner to inquire and report on the following matters, so far as they are relevant to laws that have been, or could be, made by Parliament, namely: all aspects of the production by refining, and the marketing and pricing, in Australia of all types of petroleum, diesel and other fuels for internal combustion and jet engines, derived from any form of liquid or gaseous hydro carbons, whether such hydro carbons are produced in Australia or elsewhere, and all types of residual furnace and heating fuels and other by-products likewise derived.

The Commission started collecting evidence in November 1973 after the appointment of Mr J F Kane as Secretary to the Commission on 12 November 1973. Because of the breadth and complexity of the inquiry, certain specific issues and problem areas were identified at the outset in the Letters Patent:

a) the need, in the public interest, for any changes in the number, location, capacity, technology, and type of refineries in Australia of any such form of liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons, and whether the allocations of the output of such fuels should be rationalized by joint operating or sharing of such refineries;

b) the need for additional refinery capacity to be located within the Sydney metropolitan area to serve the needs of that area; 

(c) whether the prices of such fuels and other by-products are excessive and the extent to which the marketing management and trading practices, proliferation of service stations and retail outlets, and the granting of secret or other discounts, and the maintenance of a multi-tiered price structure by refineries and wholesales of such fuels, are contributed thereto;

d) whether, and if so to what extent, the policies and objectives of any of the refineries or wholesalers of such fuels have contributed to price-cutting wars in any one retail sector to the detriment of other sectors; and to what extent fuel pricing by companies operating in Australia which are subsidiaries of foreign operations has been influenced or determined by the decisions of their overseas principles in such matters as inflating original prices paid to overseas crude oil producers and shipping freight thereon thus creating an artificially high landed price to the detriment of Australian consumers

The Commission collected a large body of evidence from oil companies;service station and automobile associations; government departments; gas and fuel corporations; shire councils; universities; laboratories, legal firms and private individuals. Hearings commenced in Sydney on 16 April 1975. In order to collate the highly technical and often politically sensitive evidence, the Commission employed an international oil industry firm of consultants, A D Little International Incorporated, who provided the necessary expertise in all areas of the petroleum industry.

A total of six reports were prepared by the Commission, the areas covered in the reports reflecting the wide terms of reference of the inquiry. The Royal Commission took the view that the matter of shortages fell within its terms of reference. This matter was examined in the firstreport, "Shortages of Petroleum Products", presented in October 1974. (1)

The second report, December 1974, set out the general factual background against which two proposals for new refineries in New South Wales were considered. (2) Although the Commission was originally concerned with only the Sydney metropolitan area, it was convenient to examine together the two proposals of BHP/Sleigh and Ampol/Total. Ampol/Total proposed an additional refinery in the Sydney metropolitan area at Kurnell Peninsular or Lucas Heights, theBHP/Sleigh submission was for a hydro-skimming refinery at Newcastle.

The third report, September 1975, titled "On the circumstances of the transfer of allocated indigenous crude oil by Allied Petrochemicals Pty. Limited to ACTU-Solo Enterprises Pty. Limited", was chiefly concerned with the terms upon which the crude oil was sold by Allied Petrochemicals to ACTU-Solo. (3) This report arose out of the evidence gathered by the Commission for its fourth report on the marketing and pricing of petroleum products in Australia.

The fourth report, April 1976, was a comprehensive survey of the marketing and pricing of the major petroleum product - motor spirit. (4) 

"National Refining Policy" was the topic of the fifth report, October 1976. (5) Much of the evidence collected for the second report was updated and extended, the specific topic was the rationalisation of refining output by joint operations. The Commission examined submissions for a small refinery at Alice Springs based on Mereenie crude oil, and a North West Shelf Refinery utilising natural gas for the de-sulphurisation and refining of foreign crude oil. 

The sixth and final report, "The use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas" dealt with the role of liquefied petroleum gas in the Australian energy economy. It was presented on 1 November 1976. (6)

Endnotes
1. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 229 of 1974.
2. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 21 of 1975.
3. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 279 of 1975.
4. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 99 of 1976.
5. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 308 of 1976.
6. Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No 399 of 1976.
7. Borchardt, Checklist of Royal Commissions, 1960-1980, pp 102-104.

(8/2450-53). 4 boxes. 

Note: 
This description (as amended) is extracted from Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales, 3rd Edition 2000.