Representing Australia's Downstream Petroleum Industry
The Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) was formed in 1976 to promote industry self-regulation and an effective dialogue between the oil industry, government and the community. It replaced a number of other organisations including the Petroleum Information Bureau that had been operating in Australia since the early 1950s.
The AIP has gained national and worldwide recognition as the peak representative body of Australia’s downstream petroleum industry.
Downstream petroleum refers to the refining, wholesaling and retailing of petroleum products. In the downstream sector, crude oil arrives at refineries where it is processed and turned into various products which are then sold and distributed throughout the market.
The AIP Board determines the Institute's strategic focus. The Board comprises AIP’s CEO, as well as the CEO’s and other senior representatives of the major oil refining and marketing companies operating in Australia.
Member companies involved in refining and marketing of petroleum products include:
These four core AIP member companies operate all major petroleum refineries in Australia and supply around 90% of the transport fuel market with bulk petroleum fuels.
Associate members comprise an additional 28 major companies engaged in servicing the petroleum industry or seeking access to services provided by AIP's subsidiary, the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC).
By actively involving its members, the AIP’s aim is to provide responsible and principled representation of the industry along with factual and informed discussion of downstream petroleum sector issues.
This is achieved through:
AIP’s head office is located in Canberra and AMOSC offices are in Geelong, Perth and Fremantle.
AIP is supported by a range of expert technical and policy committees and has close linkages and representation on expert international organisations (IEA, Concawe, IPIECA and OSRL).
AIP also manages or sponsors important industry environmental and health programs.
AIP’s subsidiary company is the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre Pty Ltd (AMOSC).
AMOSC owns and operates the oil industry’s major oil spill response facilities including stockpiles of oil spill response equipment (eg. dispersant and containment, recovery, cleaning, absorbent) and sub-surface intervention equipment (the Subsea First Response Toolkit). Stockpiles are located in Geelong, in/around Perth and Exmouth and Broome.
AMOSC is also a key supporter of the National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies, managed by AMSA on behalf of the all governments and the petroleum and shipping industries. AIP and AMOSC represent the petroleum industry on the Industry Advisory Forum and technical working groups.
Equally important is AMOSC’s role in training and coordinating industry personnel ready to provide immediate emergency oil spill response. AMOSC has a permanent staff of twelve available on a 24/7 basis. When responding to oil spills, permanent staff are supplemented by participating oil company personnel specially trained for marine spill response. This group, comprising 120 company employees, forms the AMOSC Core Group which receives support and training to international best practice standards.
AIP is a foundation participant of the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE).
CRC CARE undertakes innovative, cutting edge research aimed at preventing, assessing and remediating contamination of soil, water and air. CRC CARE is delivering research outcomes that underpin policy development work, numerous technology patents and techniques, and extensive academic and industry training.
Since its inception, CRC CARE has received contributions of more than $200 million to conduct its operations and research.
AIP’s key focus relates to both the development of the National Remediation Framework (NRF) and the dedicated CRC CARE Petroleum Research Program.
The Petroleum Research Program involves collaboration between industry, researchers and environmental regulators to develop best practice, risk based approaches to remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated by hydrocarbons.
For over 36 years, AIP has sponsored an independent research program called Health Watch which tracks the health of over 20,000 past and present employees of the Australian petroleum industry.
Health Watch is currently conducted by the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, a leading international centre for epidemiological research at Monash University.
Health Watch is highly valued by petroleum companies and their employees and is an internationally respected study. The study’s findings are published in regular Health Watch reports and have consistently shown that petroleum industry employees have better health than the general Australian community.