The governments of Australia and New Zealand will contribute to the IEA's decision to release oil reserves, they said separately, following meetings to determine their respective national support for the scheme.
New Zealand will contribute an equivalent of about six days' fuel supply, its government said on 12 March. The decision comes after the country's newly established Ministerial Economic Security and Supply Chains Group met for the first time on 11 March.
The New Zealand government holds its stocks, in part, through oil tickets or contracts. The country's only refinery, the 135,000 b/d Marsden Point facility, closed for conversion to an oil products import terminal in 2022. New Zealand has been reliant on imports ever since.
New Zealand's ministers have been advised that fuel companies in the country face no significant supply chain issues and stock levels remain strong, the government said.
Australia
Australia will contribute to the IEA's decision to release oil reserves, but it has not yet finalised its contribution, which would then be released directly to the Australian market, federal energy minister Chris Bowen said today.
It is clear supplies will be affected if the US-Iran war continues, he added.
A national coordination mechanism involving all levels of government is in place to respond to any fuel supply chain issues, Bowen said.
Australia's regional industries, including agriculture, transport and fishing, have faced supply shortfalls in recent days due to a lack of spare wholesale fuel volumes being released by major importers.
Australia's main importers are BP and ExxonMobil. Meanwhile, its domestic refiners are Viva Energy and Ampol, which supply about 90pc of Australia's gasoline. Viva Energy and Ampol operate the 120,000 b/d Geelong and 109,000 b/d Lytton refineries, respectively.
Australia suspended its recently introduced fuel standard for gasoline today, allowing fuel with higher than the legally mandated limit of 10ppm sulphur to be sold for 60 days to boost supply from Lytton, which is yet to complete its ultra-low sulphur fuels project.
