Australia has about 1.8 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in the ground, based on 2025–2026 estimates. Broader Geoscience Australia data puts its total demonstrated oil resources at about 17.1 billion barrels , but most of that is not immediately recoverable proven crude.

Quick scoop

  • Proven reserves: about 1.8 billion barrels.
  • Total demonstrated oil resources: about 17.1 billion barrels.
  • Proven and probable reserves (2P): about 1.3 billion barrels in Geoscience Australia’s 2023 estimate.
  • Crude oil specifically: a much smaller slice of the total, with a lot of Australia’s liquids tied up in condensate and oil shale rather than easy-to-produce conventional oil.

What that means

Australia does have oil underground, but not a huge amount of easy-to-extract conventional crude compared with bigger oil-producing countries. A large share of its petroleum resources is offshore, and Australia still relies heavily on imports for refined fuel.

Bottom line

If you mean “how much oil is actually there and counted as proven” , the best simple answer is around 1.8 billion barrels. If you mean all identified oil resources , the number is much larger, at roughly 17.1 billion barrels.