A roadmap initiative

Australia needs an energy secure future.

A practical roadmap for building domestic future-fuels capability, reducing liquid-fuel import exposure, and creating new value across agriculture, energy, infrastructure, defence, and regional communities.

Make it here. Build skills. Lower costs. Lower emissions.

Explore the Roadmap Why It Matters

Hydrogen
Renewable fuel refining
Aviation
Trucking
Farming
Crops
Defense
Energy Security

90%+of liquid fuels imported

More than 90% of Australia's petrol, diesel and jet fuel is sourced from overseas refineries.

2old-school refineries

Domestic production leans on just two old-fashioned crude-oil refineries — the rest is shipped in at great cost from Asia.

< 90days of fuel reserves

Australia holds well below the IEA 90-day stockholding benchmark it committed to as a member.

Sources: DCCEEW; Australian Institute of Petroleum; U.S. EIA (2024–25).

The Challenge

The risk is not theoretical.

Petrol, diesel, and jet fuel underpin transport, agriculture, mining, aviation, emergency services, food supply chains, and defence readiness. When liquid-fuel supply is disrupted, the consequences move quickly through the economy.

Import Exposure

More than 90% of Australia's petrol, diesel and jet fuel is imported, largely from refining hubs across Asia.

Strategic Vulnerability

With only two domestic refineries remaining, fuel insecurity affects freight, aviation, emergency response, defence readiness, and regional resilience.

Rising Volatility

Geopolitical disruption, shipping risk, and global demand make energy security a board-level and national-policy issue.

When fuel supply is disrupted, it is not just an energy issue. It becomes an economy, community, and national resilience issue.

The Opportunity

We have what we need right here.

Australia is among the world's largest exporters of LNG and canola — core ingredients for the fuels the world is increasingly making from crops and hydrogen — yet most of it is sent overseas. ESA asks a simple strategic question: what if more of that capability was used to strengthen domestic fuel resilience?

Australian inputs

The ingredients we already have

Crops & residues
Waste streams
Hydrogen potential
Gas & utilities
Regional infrastructure
Industrial expertise

Future-fuels capability

What we can build at home

Renewable diesel
Sustainable aviation fuel
Low-carbon liquid fuels
Storage & distribution
Refining & processing

National resilience

The value it creates

Energy security
Regional jobs
Lower-emissions pathways
First Nations participation
Domestic infrastructure
Exportable capability

Australia is the world’s third-largest LNG exporter and supplies roughly a third of global canola trade, already shipped overseas as biofuel feedstock. Sources: U.S. EIA; AEGIC (2024–25).

Future Fuels

What domestic future fuels look like.

The world is increasingly making fuel from crops, sunlight, and hydrogen rather than crude oil. Australia has the inputs to make more of it closer to home.

From crops & waste

Renewable Diesel

Drop-in low-carbon diesel made from crops, residues, tallow, and used cooking oils — suited to freight, agriculture, and mining.

From sunlight

Solar Energy

Abundant regional solar to power clean production precincts and the electrolysis behind green hydrogen.

From renewable power

Green Hydrogen

Hydrogen split from water using renewable electricity — an input for refining and lower-carbon liquid fuels.

Illustrative. Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel are already produced internationally from crops, waste oils, and hydrogen.

The Roadmap

A practical roadmap for Energy Secure Australia.

The ESA roadmap is designed to move the conversation from concern to coordinated action. It maps risk, identifies domestic inputs, builds the investment case, mobilises industry, and supports delivery of future-fuels infrastructure.

Map the exposure

Step 1 of 5

Identify critical liquid-fuel dependencies across transport, aviation, agriculture, defence, emergency services, and regional industries.

Identify domestic ingredients

Step 2 of 5

Assess Australian feedstocks, hydrogen inputs, waste streams, infrastructure, land, skills, and industrial assets that can support future-fuels production.

Build the investment case

Step 3 of 5

Model the economics, policy levers, grant pathways, loan guarantees, tax incentives, and first-cut national opportunity.

Mobilise industry participation

Step 4 of 5

Engage farming, cattle, gas, utilities, aviation, freight, mining, infrastructure, investors, and First Nations stakeholders.

Deliver future-fuels infrastructure

Step 5 of 5

Support project development for refining, storage, distribution, logistics, governance, and long-term domestic capability.

Who Benefits

Who stands to gain?

Energy security is not owned by one sector. A domestic future-fuels roadmap can create value across the industries that keep Australia moving.

Agriculture & Cropping

New demand pathways for crops, residues, and regional production.

Cattle & Regional Landholders

New participation models for land, infrastructure, feedstocks, and long-term regional value.

Gas & Hydrogen

Pathways to support future-fuels inputs, industrial transition, and firm energy capability.

Utilities

New roles in infrastructure, grid support, project enablement, and industrial precincts.

Aviation

Domestic sustainable aviation fuel pathways that improve resilience and reduce emissions exposure.

Freight & Logistics

Greater liquid-fuel resilience for the networks that move goods, food, and people.

Mining & Heavy Industry

More secure fuel pathways for sectors that cannot electrify overnight.

Defence & Emergency Services

Improved access to critical liquid fuels during global disruption and emergency events.

First Nations Communities

Participation in land, infrastructure, skills, ownership models, and long-term economic development.

Government & Policy Makers

A clearer roadmap for grants, tax incentives, loan guarantees, approvals, and national coordination.

Timing

Why now?

Energy security, climate policy, regional development, defence readiness, and industrial strategy are converging. Australia can either continue exporting the ingredients of energy security, or build more of the capability at home.

Global volatility is rising

Supply disruption, shipping risk, conflict, and demand shocks are making liquid-fuel resilience more important.

Liquid fuels remain critical

Electrification is growing, but aviation, heavy transport, agriculture, mining, defence, and emergency services still require liquid-fuel pathways.

Infrastructure takes time

Future-fuels infrastructure requires planning, policy alignment, financing, approvals, supply chains, and industry coordination.

The roadmap needs to start before the next disruption, not during it.

Our Approach

Strategy, design, and delivery — not slogans.

ESA combines strategy, risk thinking, design-led engagement, and delivery discipline. The goal is not another report that sits on a shelf. The goal is a roadmap that can guide decisions, incentives, investment, and infrastructure.

We have brought together an alliance of national partners, led by world-class thinking and drawing on places where this already works. The lead consultants, Agilitas, own renewable-energy assets and know the difference between theory and practice.

Strategic Clarity

Frame the national challenge, define the choices, and create a practical decision pathway.

Human-Centred Design

Bring government, industry, communities, and operators into the roadmap early.

Delivery Discipline

Translate the roadmap into projects, incentives, governance, infrastructure, and measurable outcomes.

Principles we work by:Client CentricityCorporate AgilityGlobal Thinking

Contact

Let’s build the roadmap.

If your organisation is involved in agriculture, energy, aviation, freight, infrastructure, utilities, defence, investment, government, or regional development, ESA is designed to bring the right people into the same conversation.

Direct contact

ron@esaproject.org

We treat early conversations as confidential. Tell us where you sit in the system and what you would want a roadmap to answer.