In its September issue of Australian Commodities, ABARE said the higher oil output would come from the start-up of two major Exmouth Sub-basin oil projects – Vincent at 100,000bopd and Stybarrow at 80,000bopd – early in the new year.

“Increased Australian production will also be supported by the commencement of operations at a number of smaller projects during 2007 to 2008,” the bureau said.

“For example, AED’s Puffin oil field, with 30,000 barrels of oil per day capacity, and the South Lobe of the Woollybutt field, at 10,000 barrels of oil per day, are also scheduled to commence production in early 2008.”

ABARE’s forecast comes on the back of a strong fiscal 2007, where oil output increased 19% from the previous year to 500,000bopd.

This result reflected the start-up of Woodside’s Enfield oil project and improved performance from brownfield operations such as the North West Shelf and Cossack-Pioneer, all of which are offshore Western Australia.

ABARE also predicted the value of Australia’s liquefied natural gas exports would grow 8% to $5.7 billion, on the back of 2% more production to 15.5 million tonnes.

Last year, the country’s LNG exports increased 22% to 15.2 million tonnes, worth $5.2 billion.