{"id":584149,"date":"2026-04-04T03:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584149\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:08:10","slug":"chris-bowen-says-australia-has-enough-fuel-for-39-days-urges-drivers-to-take-only-whats-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584149\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Bowen says Australia has enough fuel for 39 days, urges drivers to take only what\u2019s needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has assured Australians the nation won\u2019t run out of fuel, at least not in the next 39 days \u2014 but he urged Aussies not to buy more fuel than they needed this Easter long weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Bowen, speaking in Sydney, said Australia had 39 days worth of petrol in supplies (1.7 billion litres), 29 days worth of diesel (2.6 billion litres) and 30 days worth of jet fuel (847 million litres).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cFuel is going out the door to service stations and farmers and fuel is coming in the door at Australia\u2019s import terminals and our refineries are working full pelt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe total number of service stations without diesel in Australia, which is where the main pressure has been, is 312 out of the around 8000 service stations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIndustry and government have been working closely together to ensure that we are filling those gaps which have been caused by that very big increase in demand as quickly as possible so that Australians can have more confidence that when they go to the service station the fuel they need will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Even so, according to figures supplied to The Sunday Times by Mr Bowen\u2019s office on Saturday, there still remains a high number of WA service stations which have run out of diesel or unleaded fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">According to the figures, 28 service stations in WA had run out of diesel and 50 had run out of unleaded fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Bowen again urged Australians to be frugal at the bowser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe key message remains: Regardless, please buy as much fuel as you need, buy no less than you normally would but don\u2019t buy more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt\u2019s not helpful. It makes the challenges worse and if you are storing it (fuel) in a jerry can in your garage it\u2019s unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4f0bfff6b51b8823a65f78976a41670afd46fd80.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Bowen once again urged Aussies to be frugal at the bowsers. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconChris Bowen once again urged Aussies to be frugal at the bowsers.  Credit: AAP<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">And in a sign of how troubled these times were, Mr Bowen even offered up tips for drivers on how to make a tank of fuel stretch further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201c(There is) little things you can do, like checking your tyre pressure can make a big difference to your fuel efficiency and man you can get more kilometres out of a litre of petrol or diesel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The war in Iran has played havoc with oil supplies coming out of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Australia imports 90 per cent of its refined fuel, with much of that coming out of Asia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Bowen said there were 53 ships carrying fuel on their way to Australia and were expected to arrive this month, with 3.7 billion litres of fuel on board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWhile the majority of our fuel has traditionally come from Australian refineries, we have been sourcing fuel from the United States, Mexico and from other countries,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">With the conflict now in its fifth week, there is still not a clear picture of when Donald Trump will end the war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Bowen acknowledged that even when the war ends, the after effects will be felt for some time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe sooner it (war) end the better,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cAnd even if it ended today, there will be impacts on the supply chain that will be with us for weeks and months ahead..\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Just this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong joined 40 countries on a ministerial call to \u201censure critical waterways are not held hostage by the Iranian regime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Bowen reiterated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s stance that Australia would not take offensive action against Iran and would not deploy troops on the ground in Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe have made it clear that we won\u2019t be involved in any offensive arrangements in the Middle East,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe won\u2019t be changing our military stance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has assured Australians the nation won\u2019t run out of fuel, at least not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2322,44,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-584149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-federal-politics","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}