Australians have been urged to take confidence in the nation\u2019s fuel supplies, even as the Federal Government extends emergency flexibility measures amid mounting global uncertainty linked to the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n
Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced in Sydney on Saturday that Labor would extend a temporary 20 per cent reduction to fuel companies\u2019 minimum stockholding obligations until September, arguing the move would provide suppliers with greater flexibility as international supply chains remain under pressure.<\/p>\n
The measure, originally due to expire in July, was introduced to help fuel companies move supplies more quickly to areas facing shortages, particularly regional Australia.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr Bowen insisted the decision should not be interpreted as a warning of imminent shortages, pointing instead to what he described as Australia\u2019s strongest petrol position since minimum stock obligations were introduced in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is actually the highest level of petrol Australia has held since the minimum stock obligation was introduced in 2023,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n Australia currently has 48 days of petrol on hand \u2014 12 days more than when Iran was first bombed \u2014 alongside 36 days of diesel and 30 days of jet fuel.<\/p>\n Mr Bowen said 46 fuel ships were currently en route to Australia and 3.3 billion litres of fuel deliveries had been contracted for the next four weeks, including diesel, petrol, jet fuel and crude oil.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Australians can take some comfort about government and industry working so closely together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Government also announced a new 40 million litre diesel cargo through Export Finance Australia and Freedom Fuels, targeted specifically at regional Queensland and broader regional Australia.<\/p>\n The shipment, due to arrive in Brisbane during June, is intended to provide an additional buffer should international conditions deteriorate further.<\/p>\n Mr Bowen acknowledged global fuel markets remained under strain but argued Australia had weathered the crisis better than many feared.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who said rationing was inevitable at Easter, it wasn\u2019t the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt remains not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n While insisting supplies were secure through June and July, with some contracts extending into August, Mr Bowen said the Government remained cautious as instability in the Middle East continued.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to work in an uncertain international environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The extension of fuel flexibility measures suggests Canberra is seeking to balance reassurance with preparedness as global energy pressures continue to ripple through supply chains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians have been urged to take confidence in the nation\u2019s fuel supplies, even as the Federal Government extends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,12241,44,84,1720],"class_list":["post-703369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703369","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=703369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}