The Albanese government is “not contemplating” needing to exercise emergency fuel powers as prices at the bowser continue to soar and some stations are left without petrol or diesel altogether, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has revealed.
As of Saturday, Australia had 38 days worth of petrol, rising slightly, and about 30 days worth of diesel and jet fuel.
“That indicates that while we’ve released more from the strategic reserve, the ships continue to arrive in good numbers and both our refineries are working absolutely full pelt,” Mr Bowen told ABC Insiders on Sunday.
“We are, you know, really seeing the same, if not slightly more, level of petrol and diesel in Australia than we did just before this crisis began.”
Blaming panic buying, the government has in recent weeks released some of its strategic reserve and temporarily lowered sulphur content standards.
A fuel supply task force co-ordinator was also appointed last week.
Mr Bowen has previously warned certainty about fuel shipments would decrease from about mid-April.
On Sunday, he sought to downplay those concerns, saying the government was aware of only about six ships that had been cancelled out of an average of 81.
“Some of those have already been replaced by the importers and refiners with other sources,” he said, with the government working to cover the rest.
The flow of oil from Asian oil refineries had also slowed, with Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore being some of Australia’s biggest suppliers.
Australia is now looking at the United States for fuel, but also India, which has raised fears about the use of Russian oil.
“We’ve always been clear that we do not support Russian oil, but we do also understand that there is a blending of Russian oil in various points of the supply chain, which means it can be hard to trace,” he said.
“This is not a change. There has always been challenges in identifying exactly how much oil is in the product that it gets bought from … And again, this is not an Australian issue. This is every country in the world is dealing with this.”
However, Mr Bowen ruled out exercising emergency powers, including under the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act 1984, which would empower the government to direct supply.
“It’s never been invoked – ever,” Mr Bowen said.
“Not through the first two Gulf Wars, Covid.
“It’s not designed to be invoked lightly. It really has powers primarily around defence and health in the first instance, to ensure that those key areas are getting diesel that they need, but also other forms of fuel.”
Mr Bowen said he would need to be satisfied “there’s a real shortage”, and would have to seek advice from the National Oil Emergency Committee – which includes the states and territories – and inform the Governor-General.
As for rationing, Mr Bowen said “we’re a long way from that”.
“The state governments have powers” to enact rationing, he said.
“The commonwealth government, under the Fuel Emergencies Act, has powers.
“We are not contemplating at this point needing to use any of those powers.”
Mr Bowen said 74 out of the 80 ships were expected to arrive over April and May.
