The Labor government is facing questions over whether Australia will run out of fuel amid fears for supplies in the wake of the Middle East crisis.
Motorists are paying more at the petrol bowser, while some regional towns have already run dry due to the global oil price hike.
Meanwhile, Climate Minister Chris Bowen told parliament on Thursday he could not guarantee Australia would avoid a fuel shortage, declaring a national crisis and advancing plans to release fuel from the strategic reserve.
Appearing on Seven’s Sunrise on Friday, Health Minister Mark Butler was asked by host Nat Barr: ‘Will Australians run out of fuel?’
Instead of providing a clear answer, Butler offered a non-committal response, sidestepping the issue.
‘Well, we’ve been working really hard over the last few years preparing for a situation just like this,’ he said.
‘We have more fuel on hand than we have had at any time in the last 15 years.
‘Ships are still arriving.’
Seven host Nat Barr asked Health Minister Mark Butler on Friday whether Australians will run out of fuel. However, he did not provide a direct answer
Butler said the government introduced new laws in November to get ‘better transparency, a better line of sight by governments around these fuel stockholdings’.
He said the Liberal Party had voted against those arrangements.
Barr also questioned Butler on whether the federal government’s response to disruption had been too slow.
‘There’s enough fuel in the country,’ Butler responded.
‘The problem we have is that it’s not getting into some of the regional centres as quickly as it’s really required, because there’s much more demand.
‘Some areas are using twice as much fuel in terms of filling up, even though there’s no change to the way in which the economy is running.’
The federal government announced on Thursday that it had relaxed quality standards for the next 60 days to boost the domestic market, with an extra 100million litres of fuel per month, allowing supplies with higher levels of sulphur to be used.
Quality levels will still remain very high by international standards, the government said.
Motorists are paying more at petrol stations, while many regional towns have already run out of fuel due to the global oil price hike
Meanwhile, the resources minister is heading to Japan for talks with her global counterparts about securing fuel in the face of oil market chaos.
The price of Brent crude, the US oil benchmark, surged to more than $100 a barrel on Friday (AEDT) amid reports Iran had been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz – a key trade route for oil from the region.
Resources Minister Madeleine King said she would meet her counterparts from the US, Japan, South Korea, Timor Leste and other countries at the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Forum, where petrol and diesel supplies will be on the agenda.
‘I’m hoping to achieve good discussions about where everyone else is sitting in addressing the fuel supply or demand issues they’re facing in their countries,’ she told ABC TV on Friday morning.
King said boosting supplies of critical minerals and rare earths – used in electric vehicle batteries, smartphones and sensitive defence technologies – would also be discussed.
Asked if Australia could face broader fuel shortages if the conflict drags on for more than a few weeks, King conceded that the longer the war continues, the greater the impact on the global economy.
‘The ripple effects of such conflict reach everybody’s shores, including Australia’s,’ she said.
Back in Australia, the Coalition has been unable to get the government to provide a guarantee that the fuel supply would not run dry.
The conflict in the Middle East effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz – the gateway for about 20 per cent of global gas and oil shipping (pictured, a Thai tanker ablaze in the Strait)
‘I understand Australians are following events in the Middle East and that they are feeling and seeing the consequences here at home,’ Albanese said during a fiery Question Time on Thursday.
‘We continue to see ships arrive carrying fuel in the quantities that we expect.’
The conflict in the Middle East effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz – the gateway for about 20 per cent of global gas and oil shipping – leaving tankers idle for over a week and forcing producers to halt pumping while storage facilities were cleared.
Images, verified by Reuters, emerged overnight into Friday (AEDT) of ships engulfed in orange fireballs in Iraqi waters after an apparent escalation in Iranian attacks.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who took over from his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said the Strait will stay closed to maintain pressure.
‘The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used,’ he said on Thursday.
