{"id":64523,"date":"2026-08-04T01:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/64523\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T01:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:57:10","slug":"concerns-remain-as-wa-government-puts-oakajee-site-on-table-for-new-oil-refinery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/64523\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns remain as WA government puts Oakajee site on table for new oil refinery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Power constraints remain one of the Oakajee industrial site’s biggest hurdles as the Commonwealth explores locations for a potential new oil refinery in Western Australia, according to a regional chamber of commerce leader.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and WA Premier Roger Cook last week announced a $4 million pre-feasibility study <\/a>to examine potential sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the announcement being made in the state’s mining hub of Karratha, there was some confusion about which areas were being explored for the refinery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But WA Energy Minister Amber Jade Sanderson said the Mid West and South West were the main locations of interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Oakajee Industrial Area was developed to create a new heavy industrial area.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Power investment needed<\/p>\n

Ms Sanderson said a refinery in WA “just makes sense” and many ideal locations had already been identified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The feasibility study will examine all location options across WA including Oakajee, Kwinana or Kemerton,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oakajee Strategic Industrial Area, 440 kilometres north of Perth, was designed to create a heavy industrial hub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The site, which covers 1,330 hectares of land, sits adjacent to the ocean.<\/p>\n

It was identified more than 20 years ago for a potential second port, but nothing has been developed<\/p>\n

Mid West Chamber of Commerce chief executive Joanne Fabling said a lack of power supply to the region was a major hurdle to attracting new businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joanne Fabling says a lack of power infrastructure in Geraldton is stopping industry from developing further.\u00a0 (
\n ABC News: Phoebe Pin
\n )<\/p>\n

The state government announced in 2025 it would expand the high-capacity Clean Energy Link North from Malaga to Three Springs<\/a> but not the 140 kilometres further to connect Geraldton, WA’s second-largest regional city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Fabling said infrastructure was deterring potential business investment and a 330KV transmission line was needed to connect the whole region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have long known that the Mid West has power constraints, especially even for our existing businesses and supply,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s hurting our opportunities to progress major projects \u2026 that would deliver great return on investment.”\"Powerlines<\/p>\n

Transmission lines run from Malaga to Three Springs. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

Legislation prevents private entities from controlling public property, such as power infrastructure, which Ms Fabling said created red tape around further development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So if someone has to go and build a 330KV transmission line from Three Springs to Oakajee, they wouldn’t be able to own it if it was connecting back into the grid,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“No-one [wants] to make the first move on a particular project that’s probably sitting around $300 odd million to do.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Fabling said she was not holding her breath when the government announced it would explore Oakajee as a site for a new oil refinery.<\/p>\n

“One of the things that we really know is there’s a lot of water between an announcement and anything progressing,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

A new road at the Oakajee site leads to empty land. (ABC News: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Analyst at the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis, Kevin Morrison, said the Mid West’s power issues would have to be addressed if the refinery came to Oakajee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Petrol refineries do require a lot of energy, not just electricity but also gas, largely because the crude oil has to be heated and broken down,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So that would be an additional investment for a new refinery if it’s going to be located in the Mid West.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Still dependent’ on imports\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts have started poking holes in the plan<\/a> since the announcement for a study was made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Morrison said if the project got off the ground, it most likely would not change the country’s reliance on imported oil.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kevin Morrison says power issues would need to be addressed.\u00a0 (ABC News: James Carmody)<\/p>\n

“Geoscience Australia have assessed the commercial oil reserves; that is what makes economic sense to extract out of the ground [which] equates to only about seven months of daily consumption,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[With a WA refinery] We are still going to be dependent on importing oil, but we’ll just be importing crude oil instead of oil products.<\/p>\n

“I just think there needs to be an emphasis; it’s really not going to change our energy security situation.” \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Power constraints remain one of the Oakajee industrial site’s biggest hurdles as the Commonwealth explores locations for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28129,79031,22,21,55439,79030,79028,79026,79027,79029,146],"class_list":["post-64523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-amber-jade-sanderson","tag-anthony-albenese","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-crude-oil","tag-importing-oil","tag-oakajee-site","tag-oil-refinery-coming-to-wa","tag-oil-refinery-in-the-midwest","tag-power-issues","tag-roger-cook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}