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In various regions across the nation, petrol and diesel prices are nearing the $3 per litre mark, with some gas stations in both urban and rural areas facing shortages.
While pinpointing the exact amount of fuel available for use in Australia is challenging, Energy Minister Chris Bowen offered some insight during a recent interview.
“Petrol supply has increased slightly; we’re looking at about 38 days’ worth of stock,” Bowen revealed on ABC’s Insiders program.
He further explained, “For diesel and jet fuel, we have around 30 days’ supply, which remains steady. This suggests that although more fuel has been released from the strategic reserve, incoming shipments remain consistent.”
Bowen emphasized that these figures were freshly updated and assured that Australia’s refineries are operating at maximum capacity, concentrating solely on supplying fuel domestically rather than exporting abroad.
Bowen said the figures were updated just a day before, and he insisted Australia’s refineries were working at full capacity and only focused on getting fuel to Australian suppliers, not foreign exports.
This has remained steady at levels seen at the start of the conflict earlier this month.
Where does Australia get its petrol from?
Australia gets most of its oil from overseas; in fact, just 10 per cent comes locally.
While you may think this means Australia shouldn’t be hit hard by a conflict in the Middle East, think again.
However, these countries get most of their oil from the Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.
All of these countries have not only been impacted by Iranian strikes, but are also unable to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz due to Iran’s blocking of it.
Will Australia have to ration fuel?
It was something whispered quietly last week, but governments at all levels are insisting fuel rationing will not be required at the moment.
However, some experts claim fuel rationing would actually be a smart option to help ease the fuel crisis.
“It is better to act sooner rather than later given our limited reserves and the spectre of early fuel price buying, queuing and hoarding,” former head of the ACCC Allan Fels said today.
“There’s already discussion of some relatively soft steps which could include rationing of access to petrol based on odd/even number plates; driving every second day; working from home and speed limits.
“One problem with soft approaches (often proclaimed by governments with much fanfare) is that rather than reducing demand, they induce a rush to the bowsers by a public troubled by the adoption of rationing.”
And even though the government is quick to discount the need for fuel rationing, if the war goes on for much longer than expected, it may be unavoidable.
“Obviously, this is a function of how long this conflict continues, and that’s not something that I can answer in terms of what’s going to happen,” Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said last week.
When was the last time Australia had fuel rationing?
Australia has not rationed fuel since 1979, and ironically, that had something to do with events in Iran as well.
Back then, workers at fuel refineries in the country went on strike, which combined with fuel supply disruption caused by the Iranian Revolution, forced the government to take action.
Before that, the last time wide-scale fuel rationing was implemented was during World War II.
When will fuel prices go down in Australia?
It all depends on when the cost of oil overall goes down.
At the moment, the cost remains high and could get even higher still as the conflict disrupts global trade and forces the cost of oil to remain at an elevated cost. This was also seen during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Higher demand at the pumps also doesn’t help as people continue to hoard and panic buy petrol.
Governments at all levels have urged Australians not to do this, as it can actually compound the problem of fuel supply and the cost of petrol at the pump overall.
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