Australia has enjoyed near self-sufficiency in crude oil production since the late 1960s but has declined to 80-90% in recent years. This is expected to drop to below 50% of demand by 2019-2020. Southern Pacific Petroleum NL is pioneering the development of breakthrough technology to unlock oil from Australia's largest oil resource, with 17.3 billion barrels of oil shale held in ten deposits along the coast of Central Queensland, Australia. These deposits could support production of more than one million barrels of oil per day, helping to secure oil self-sufficiency for Australia and meet part of a growing oil demand in Asia. The company spent more than A $150 million on research and development before embarking on a demonstration plant to produce oil commercially. It is the depth of this research and its application that has provided a sound basis for the development of a new industry that can help fuel the growing demand for oil in the transportation sector in a way that is environmentally responsible. The company's initial operations at the Stuart deposit, located 15 km north of Gladstone, Central Queensland, is the start of a multi-stage risk-managed approach to developing a shale oil industry using the first-of-a-kind Alberta Taciuk Processor (ATP) technology. Stage 1, a 4,500-bpsd (barrels per stream day) demonstration-scale plant, is a 75:1 scale-up of a successful laboratory pilot plant developed to process oil sands in Canada. The Stage 1 plant was constructed in 1997-1999 and has produced over 500,000 barrels of oil to date. A great deal of operating data has been captured and the plant has been able to run in excess of 52 days continuously at peak rates up to 84% of capacity. A current capital program will push both throughput and availability to design rates over the next year. The Stage 2 plant, with a capacity of approximately 15,000 pbsd, will share services and infrastructure with the Stage I plant. This is projected to lead into a commercial plant ultimately producing up to 200,000 bpsd of light sweet crude equivalent, based on multiple commercial ATP units. At this rate, Stuart could offset current oil imports to Australia and meet one quarter of the current Australian demand for crude oil. The full commercial plant would be supplied by oil shale from the Stuart Resource for more than 30 years. The raw oil produced in the Stage 1 ATP from the Stuart deposit has an API gravity of 42degrees. As the raw oil is a product of pyrolysis, it requires on site treatment to stabilize it and to reduce nitrogen and sulphur levels to best meet refiners' needs. In Stage 1, the naphtha/kerosene fractions are hydrotreated to produce an ultra low-sulphur 'water-white' product, which can be readily used to make gasoline and jet fuel. Shale oil has been certified as a feedstock for jet fuel production by the world's leading accreditation agencies. A long-term contract has been signed for the sale of naphtha to Mobil Oil Australia. The second product, light fuel oil, is sold into the Singapore fuel oil market as a blending stock. The successful performance of the ATP at the Stuart Stage I plant under sustained operations has now demonstrated its technical viability, economic potential and environmental sustainability. Oil from shale is Australia's emerging new clean-energy industry.