> All speculatively, knowing that their type of oil production is not profitable at all if oil once again goes below $70 a barrel, which could happen overnight

> All speculatively, knowing that their type of oil production is not profitable at all if oil once again goes below $70 a barrel, which could happen overnight (see Sept-Nov 2008)? Is there an obvious reason they couldn't sell their oil forward (or just sell futures)? You can sell oil forward three years for around $89 a barrel at the moment, as opposed to around $93 a barrel for delivery next month. That's for WTI, and Brent is currently even more (in fact the Brent curve is in contango at the moment). I don't know what grade Australian oil would be, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to Brent than to WTI.