{"id":555928,"date":"2026-03-22T00:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555928\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:21:13","slug":"six-fuel-ships-to-australia-cancelled-or-deferred-bowen-confirms-though-gap-has-been-filled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555928\/","title":{"rendered":"Six fuel ships to Australia cancelled or deferred, Bowen confirms, though gap has been filled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says six fuel tankers that were scheduled to deliver oil to Australia next month were recently cancelled or deferred, out of about 81 ships expected from mid-April to mid-May.<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen said there would be “bumps” in supply, but he hoped that gave Australians a sense of the scale of impact he expected the Middle East conflict to have on Australia.<\/p>\n

Iran war live updates:<\/a> For all the latest news on the war in the Middle East, read our blog.<\/p>\n

“Some of those have already been replaced by the importers and refiners with other sources,” Mr Bowen told ABC Insiders.<\/p>\n

“That gives us some context of what we are dealing with, that’s not to say it isn’t a very challenged environment internationally, and of course the flow of oil to Asian refineries has slowed, and that has downward impacts on us.”<\/p>\n

The federal government is confident that fuel supplies will arrive largely as scheduled until mid-April, and there remains at least as much supply in Australia as there was in-country before the outbreak of war in Iran.<\/p>\n

“We still have two refineries working full pelt \u2026 and we also have the boats continuing to arrive, and the refiners and importers working very closely with government to replace those six being cancelled or deferred,” Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

After April, fuel gets complicated<\/a><\/p>\n

Ships carrying oil are continuing to come to Australia as expected and should do so for the next month, and the industry is urging that while the picture beyond that is uncertain and complicated, “the tankers have never stopped coming”.<\/p>\n

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, including to Asian refineries that ship to Australia.<\/p>\n

China and Thailand have been the first to ban fuel exports, prioritising their own supplies, though Reuters reports that ExxonMobil, BP and Vitol are shipping record volumes of oil to Australia to fill the gaps in supply from Asia.<\/p>\n

Ship trackers have shown that fuel tankers are travelling to Australia from the Gulf of Mexico, a significantly more expensive route.<\/p>\n

The hit to supply has caused global oil prices to soar, and the spike in petrol and diesel prices in Australia has hurt consumers directly as well as putting more pressure on inflation.<\/p>\n

While the government has asserted supply is stable, it expects prices to remain elevated even in a best-case scenario.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said last week that the federal government expected prices would not return to pre-conflict levels this year, and potentially not for three years if the conflict became protracted.<\/p>\n

Bowen: Australia ‘a long way’ from fuel rationing<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen said if the war dragged on for several more weeks there were existing plans to deal with supply concerns.<\/p>\n

He said triggering fuel rationing would be an extraordinary move.<\/p>\n

“We’re a long way from that,” Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

“There’s a process in place, I have had a meeting with state and territory governments, who have strong powers \u2026 we are not contemplating at this point needing to use any of those powers.<\/p>\n

“If we’ve got, at this point 74 of the 80 ships arriving over April and May \u2026 I can understand if people think, all the ships are coming now and one day they will all stop, in one go \u2014 that is highly unlikely to be the case, it is much more likely there will be bumps in supply.”<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen did not rule out that more ships could be cancelled.<\/p>\n

The minister urged Australians to buy only the fuel they needed, saying supply issues in isolated spots in the regions had been driven purely by a spike in demand from customers that “any” supply chain would struggle to manage.<\/p>\n

Australia’s fuel reserves contain 38 days’ worth of petrol, and 30 days each of diesel and jet fuel \u2014 fresh supply continues to arrive to Australia.<\/p>\n

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