{"id":602198,"date":"2026-04-12T14:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602198\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:24:20","slug":"albo-to-talk-fuel-fertiliser-in-southeast-asia-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602198\/","title":{"rendered":"Albo to talk fuel, fertiliser in Southeast Asia blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Anthony Albanese is heading to oil refining heavyweights Brunei and Malaysia as part of a Southeast Asian diplomatic blitz aimed at shoring up Australia\u2019s fuel and fertiliser supplies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Australia imports around 90 per cent of its fuel needs, leaving it at the mercy of foreign refineries weathering the global oil crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Australia farmers also source some 60 per cent of their urea \u2013 the most widely used nitrogen fertiliser \u2013 from the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Those imports have been cut by Iran\u2019s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brunei, a small oil-rich autocracy, supplies nine per cent of Australia\u2019s diesel imports and 11 per cent of urea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Prime Minister will seek guarantees from Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah that his country will continue shipping fuel and fertiliser when they meet mid-next week.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"ALBANESE REFINERY BRISBANE\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f2609a956f293faebd4fccbd633a6db1.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting Brunei and Malaysia to shore up Australia\u2019s foreign fuel supplies. Picture: NewsWire \/ Tertius Pickard<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Albanese will also seek guarantees from Malaysia, which is Australia\u2019s third-largest source of refined fuel and accounts for 10 per cent of urea imports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cEngaging with critical regional partners such as Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia will help<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ensure Australia\u2019s energy supply remains secure during times of uncertainty,\u201d he said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe are taking every step to reinforce relationships and engage with key partners to keep<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">our fuel supply flowing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cMy government is continuing to take every practical action to shield Australians from the<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">impact of the war in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Malaysia\u2019s embassy last month warned the country would prioritise its own fuel needs before looking at foreign demand, sparking concerns it could curb exports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Those concerns were compounded days later by news several scheduled shipments were cancelled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Going into his visits, Mr Albanese has food and agriculture exports to lean on in Brunei and gas exports for Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Australia is responsible for 95 per cent of Malaysia\u2019s imported natural gas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The trip comes after Mr Albanese secured a pledge from Singapore that it would continue fuel shipments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong caveated that pledge with \u201cas long as upstream supplies continue\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese is heading to oil refining heavyweights Brunei and Malaysia as part of a Southeast Asian diplomatic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2324,64,63,55099,293387,264217,182538,44,6895,293388],"class_list":{"0":"post-602198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-anthony-albanese","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brunei","12":"tag-brunei-darussalam","13":"tag-fuel-supplies","14":"tag-fuel-supply","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-prime-minister","17":"tag-sultan-haji-hassanal-bolkiah"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602198","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=602198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}