{"id":922590,"date":"2026-10-10T03:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922590\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T03:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:36:12","slug":"australia-does-not-need-or-want-russian-fuel-chris-bowen-says-after-trump-deal-to-buy-diesel-from-putin-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922590\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia does not \u2018need or want Russian fuel\u2019, Chris Bowen says, after Trump deal to buy diesel from Putin | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s energy minister has said Russia \u201cshould not be rewarded for their illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine\u201d after the US president, Donald Trump<\/a>, struck a deal with Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from the country.<\/p>\n

The energy and climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said on Saturday Australia did not \u201cneed or want Russian fuel\u201d while updating reporters on the country\u2019s fuel reserves.<\/p>\n

Trump wrote on social media on Saturday morning Australian time that after a \u201chighly successful discussion\u201d with Putin, Russia<\/a> had agreed to immediately supply \u201c300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel\u201d to US and global markets, which would be followed by 500,000 tons in November rising later to 3m tons, depending on \u201cthe condition of [Russia\u2019s] diesel refineries\u201d.<\/p>\n

The deal was criticised by Democrats and some Republicans<\/a>. Trump is under political pressure from high diesel prices in the US ahead of next month\u2019s midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the deal \u201cplays into Russia\u2019s hands \u2013 allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a regular Saturday morning press conference to update Australians on the country\u2019s fuel reserves, Bowen, who will lead negotiations at next month\u2019s UN climate talks in Turkey<\/a>, said: \u201cWe don\u2019t need or want Russian fuel in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have the arrangements in place as best as we possibly can with our trading partners to ensure that Russian fuel doesn\u2019t flow to Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want Vladimir Putin to benefit from this war in the Middle East. What the United States does is a matter for them. But we won\u2019t be changing our approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to have the very, very firm view that Russia should not be rewarded for their illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine by any arrangements put in place as a result of the Middle East crisis \u2026 policies for other countries are a matter for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncertainties remain in the Middle East as a result of Trump\u2019s protracted war with Iran. He this week promised he would not launch more attacks on Iran<\/a> before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Bowen said the \u201csituation internationally remains difficult\u201d but Australia had 43 days\u2019 worth of petrol and 31 days\u2019 worth of diesel, which was consistent with recent updates.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have 51 ships on the way to Australia with fuel, and we have 3.2bn litres of the various types of fuel locked in and contracted to be delivered over the next four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowen said he had met with senior Saudi Arabian representatives during a meeting in Fiji to prepare for the UN climate talks in Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we continue to see attacks in Saudi Arabia,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I do have confidence that the Saudi Arabian government is taking steps to ensure that the fuel is flowing as well as it possibly can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue the same approach that we\u2019ve had all through this crisis, working closely with trading partners in south-east Asia and beyond, including India and Saudi Arabia, working very closely with our domestic refiners to ensure that they are working at full pelt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I continue to be in very regular contact with the chief executives of Australia\u2019s domestic refiners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s energy minister has said Russia \u201cshould not be rewarded for their illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-922590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922590","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=922590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}