AUSTRALIA SAID TO RELY TOO MUCH ON OIL TAXES The government's over-reliance on revenue from crude oil is adversely affecting Australia's economic performance, Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (APEA) chairman Dennis Benbow said. Over one-third of Australia's indirect tax income is derived from oil at a time of falling domestic output and weak crude prices, he told the APEA annual conference here. This dependence on oil-generated revenue distorts the country's economic performance directly by acting as a disincentive to new exploration and indirectly by affecting trading competitiveness through high energy costs, he said. Australia's medium-term liquid fuel self-sufficiency position is posing a major economic threat, yet the government's response has been to load new tax burdens on the oil industry, Benbow said. Domestic oil output from existing fields is expected to fall to 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) in fiscal 1992/93 from 546,000 bpd in 1985/86, reflecting mainly the decline of the Bass Strait fields, he said. Bass Strait reserves are now two-thirds depleted, with the three largest fields 80 pct depleted, he said. By 1992/93, Bass Strait output is expected to be just over half the 1985/86 level, assuming a number of so far undeveloped fields are brought on stream and enhanced recovery from existing fields goes ahead, Benbow said. Government projections of output from as yet undiscovered fields range from 40,000 to 130,000 bpd, he said. Australian liquid fuel demand is forecast to rise to 680,000 bpd in 1992/93 from 565,000 in 1985/86, implying a crude oil gap of between 270,000 and 360,000 bpd in five years time, he said. At present world oil prices and the current value of the Australian dollar, annual oil imports in 1992/93 would cost between 3.2 billion and 3.6 billion dlrs, Benbow said. Despite intensive exploration in the early 1980's, the addition to reserves has been inadequate, he said. For example, the 409 mln barrels discovered in the five years 1980-84 represent about two years' consumption, he said. He called on the government to review its tax policies to restore incentive to exploration.