Anthony Albanese will seek not only fuel supply guarantees but higher imports when he meets Brunei’s long-reigning autocratic sultan on Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the Prime Minister’s goals.
NewsWire understands the rationale is to reduce supply chain dependency on Middle East oil amid Iran war shocks.
While Australia does not import oil from the Middle East, most of the foreign refineries responsible for 90 per cent of its fuel do – a vulnerability highlighted by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong last week when he assured Mr Albanese that “Singapore will continue supplying refined fuels to Australia … as long as upstream supplies continue”.
The third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, Brunei can both pump and refine crude, shielding production from supply disruptions hitting other regional fuel hubs.
The country, which is a little more than twice the size of the ACT, currently supplies Australia with nine per cent of total diesel imports.
Government sources did not give a figure of how much Mr Albanese wanted to lift that figure but did say growing access to other fuels would on the agenda.
Ultimately any deal hinges Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s approval.
Mr Bolkiah has ruled Brunei since 1967 and holds total executive authority, serving simultaneously as prime minister, defence minister and finance minister.
As Australia is Brunei’s biggest trading partner, one source said Mr Albanese is well-placed to negotiate.
Who is Brunei’s sultan?
Australia and Brunei “enjoy a warm and longstanding relationship”, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Brunei relations brief.
While defence and education are key elements of the relationship, trade remains the top ticket item with Australia worth almost $3bn to Brunei’s economy in 2024.
In his nearly 60 years on the throne, Mr Bolkiah has shared the proceeds of Brunei’s oil industry with his subjects, giving the population some of the highest living standards in Southeast Asia.
Citizens enjoy free healthcare and education as well as heavily state-subsidised homes, fuel, food and utilities without paying any personal income tax.
Mr Bolkiah has also imposed some of the strictest anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world.
Since 2014, he has rolled out a sharia-based legal system alongside a separate penal code rooted in British common law, which includes amputations for stealing and lashes for female homosexual intercourse.
Lapidation, or death by stoning, was also introduced for adultery, anal sex and insulting Islam in 2019.
However, after intense international backlash Mr Bolkiah announced the penalty would subject to a de facto moratorium preventing executions in Brunei since 1957.
Andrew Witheford, international and crisis campaigner at Amnesty International, said there are “significant human rights issues” in all the countries Mr Albanese is seeking fuel assurances from in Southeast Asia.
But Mr Witheford said the human rights record in the region is improving in-part because of lobbying from Australia.
“I think Australia’s human rights diplomacy and global human rights diplomacy plays a part in encouraging countries to move along,” he told NewsWire.
Malaysia last year established a working group to explore abolishing the death penalty and has made “significant improvements of the past 10 years” to its human rights record, he said.
“So with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister (Penny Wong) going to the region, they take these opportunities to discuss the range of the relationship,” Mr Witheford said.
“We’re aware that there’s a very serious and pressing purpose for this particular mission, given the significant oil derived exports.
“Our position would be that if these meetings are happening, and Australia prides itself on having close and very friendly relationships with these countries … we need to have the maturity and the ability to raise our concerns and the issues that we have with these countries not being up to international human rights standards in various ways.”
