Rural fuel distributor Paul McCallum hopes the worst is over.

At the start of the month, as fuel prices surged after the US and Israel bombed Iran, farmers started bringing their diesel orders forward, requesting “a boisterous but not over the top” 1.5m litres from his company Inland Petroleum.

As an independent company not affiliated with one of the major fuel importers, Inland Petroleum buys its diesel and petrol on the wholesale market and is usually told by suppliers by lunchtime of the following day’s prices.

“The [prices] were reviewed at about 4pm, which was very unusual, and we had about an 8c increase and that immediately started to concern us,” he said. “Now, we’ve seen wholesale refined product prices go up 70c a litre.”

The federal government has said there are no fuel shortages and repeatedly urged people not to panic-buy after dozens of service stations across Australia ran out of petrol amid a disruption to energy supplies caused by the Middle East conflict.

The crisis, which is particularly acute in regional Australia, has put a spotlight on the way Australia’s fuel industry works as some independent distributors say they cannot get enough fuel.

McCallum, who runs about a dozen retail petrol stations in western New South Wales, said he was not aware of any huge rush of individual customers panic-buying in the “way the government has indicated”.

However, he said there had been a surge in demand from farmers who were “immediately very concerned” about diesel prices and a perceived lack of availability and wanted to shore up their own supplies.

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McCallum said he was struggling to get fuel from the major companies – Mobil, BP, Ampol and Shell, which is run by Viva Energy in Australia.

He said the companies were allocating stock to select retail service stations, which meant independent distributors like his company, and even some of the smaller branded sites, were missing out.

“We actually cart fuel for some branded service stations – both Ampol and Shell – and … they’ve told us we can’t pick up today because they haven’t got any allocation,” he said.

“Whether those so-called allocation limits are being put on because they’re trying to preserve the fuel and spread it out among everybody, I don’t know; I’m not privy to what Shell does or what Ampol does, but they are definitely doing allocation.”

Nathan Falvo, who made the news on the weekend when his petrol station in Victoria’s north-west completely ran dry, also raised concerns about fuel allocation.

On Wednesday, Falvo told Guardian Australia he had just received another top-up delivery after his store in Robinvale again ran out of unleaded and was left for about 10 hours without any petrol.

Falvo said each week he typically sold between 12,000 and 18,000 litres of unleaded and diesel fuel combined and would normally receive two to three refills from a local distributor supplied by one of the majors in Melbourne.

“There was a period now when we had no allocation for unleaded or diesel,” he said. “We weren’t receiving our normal orders,” he said.

Guardian Australia contacted Mobil, BP, Ampol and Viva Energy for comment. The four companies supply about 85% of Australia’s liquid fuels, according to the peak body that represents them – the Australian Institute of Petroleum.

Last week, the AIP said its members did not have “sufficient inventory” to supply businesses that could not obtain fuel from their regular suppliers or had relied on the spot market.

“In these circumstances, AIP members have had to prioritise supply to their regular customers and cease spot sales,” the AIP’s chief executive, Malcolm Roberts, said in a statement.

The Barwon MP, Roy Butler, whose rural electorate encompasses nearly half of NSW, said regional industries were bearing the brunt of the supply crisis and the federal government should facilitate plans for bulk diesel storage.

“Supply seems to be most restricted to independent fuel outlets, which quite often are the only available outlet in remote areas,” he said. “A supply interruption now can have financial repercussions well into the future.”

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Wednesday announced a snap meeting of national cabinet on fuel supply set to take place on Thursday morning, the latest in a string of meetings at state and federal levels to discuss the problem.

Albanese stressed that so far all of Australia’s imports of petrol and diesel had arrived as expected, but acknowledged a surge in demand had led to some shortages, particularly of diesel.

The government had already directed fuel companies to release nearly one-fifth of reserve petrol and diesel supplies, relaxed standards to allow higher sulphur levels in fuel and promised to crack down on any price-gouging by petrol retailers.

The NSW sheep farmer Graham Gilmore said diesel prices soared from $1.76 a litre to $3 in just a few days at the start of the month, as he defended those in the agriculture industry who had chosen to stockpile fuel.

“It would be a very poor decision for any business to not buy it at the lower price,” he said. “It’s not panic-buying. On 10,000 litres at an extra $1.25, that’s $12,000.

“If you don’t have the fuel, you’re immediately in trouble.