Australia will have sufficient fuel supply until March and April, Australian energy minister Chris Bowen said in a press statement on 19 March, but added that "the second half of April is when there is more uncertainty".
The Australian government established a national fuel supply taskforce on the same day.
Canberra maintains that recent supply issues have been driven by a spike in demand caused by panic buying rather than by constraints in supply chains. The government has not ruled out future fuel rationing but said it has no plans to introduce such measures at this stage. Direct government intervention to procure supply is unlikely.
The Australian government allowed the release of up to 762mn litres (4.8mn bl) of gasoline and gasoil from Australia's domestic reserves on 13 March, reducing the MSO levels for each company to which it applies by 20pc. A total of 519mn litres of gasoil and gasoline had so far been released as of 19 March, adding around five days of extra supply of gasoline and six days of gasoil, Bowen said. "We're not doing it to get extra time, we're doing it to get extra supply into the regions," he added.
Concerns about supply to regional farming and fishing businesses has dominated headlines about the crisis locally, especially because Australia's busy winter grains cropping season usually begins in April.
The government has also taken other measures such as relaxing fuel standards to allow Australian refiner Ampol to sell its gasoline domestically at 50ppm sulphur content, above the national standard of 10ppm for a 60-day period. The relaxation also allows 50ppm gasoil to be imported.
Earlier today, the federal government announced it will extend its Fuel Security Services Payment (FSSP) programme, designed to keep its two remaining refineries open, while lowering the bar for the operators to access state subsidies. The scheme will keep Ampol's 109,000 b/d Lytton refinery in Brisbane, Queensland, and Viva Energy's 120,000 b/d Geelong facility operating into the next decade, Bowen said. The FSSP was supposed to run until 2027, but will now be extended to 30 June 2030. Ampol has advised the government it now has the confidence to maintain full production and defer planned maintenance work to increase output while supply chains continue to face strain due to the US-Iran war, Bowen said.
There has already been non-government fuel rationing in parts of Australia. The surge in demand on the back of fears of insufficient supply of fuels has led to at least one supplier rationing sales to non-contracted buyers. Some mining companies without contracted supply are already facing issues, market sources said, but this could not be confirmed at the time of writing. Meanwhile, at least 107 fuel stations across the state of New South Wales have run out of diesel, premier Chris Minns said today.
Australia had 30, 37 and 29-days' worth of stocks for gasoil, gasoline and jet fuel at the normal rate of consumption, the latest weekly snapshot of fuel supplies as of 10 March shows.
