appointed a fuel supply task force co-ordinator <\/a>and held an urgent national cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders on Thursday.<\/p>\nHow much fuel does Australia really have?<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s fuel stocks are often reported in terms of \u201cdays of cover\u201d: the number of days the current supply could meet national consumption at normal rates.<\/p>\n
The Minimum Stockholding Obligation (MSO), set by the federal government, requires fuel companies to hold a minimum volume of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel.<\/p>\n
At the latest reporting on March 10, gasoline stocks covered 37 days, diesel 30 days and kerosene (jet fuel) 29 days.<\/p>\n
But the MSO is largely an accounting measure. It doesn\u2019t represent actual, refined fuel stored in tanks and ready to be used by consumers. <\/p>\n
It includes \u201cstocks on water in Australia\u2019s exclusive economic zone and some crude oil and unfinished stocks at refineries\u201d, according to the MSO\u2019s methodology.<\/p>\n
Mr van Onselen worried Australia\u2019s fuel stocks would quickly dry up as Asian countries began to prioritise domestic demand. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe nightmare scenario is that resource nationalism overruns the oil market globally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The economist argued policymakers had \u201cstood by silently\u201d as the nation shut down its fuel refineries, and left Australia \u201chighly exposed\u201d by ignoring IEA requirements. <\/p>\n
The MSO is next due to report fuel stocks on Friday. <\/p>\n
PM says panic buying is the biggest risk<\/p>\n
Speaking in Hobart this week, the Prime Minister said that panic buying itself, not a shortage of fuel, was creating problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not less fuel in Australia today than there was three weeks ago,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single ship that was due to land here has landed here. There is not less supply. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is has been an issue of increased demand. A doubling of demand, and in some cases much more than doubling in areas, that can mean there are shortages in some areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
PM\u2019s \u2018message to service stations\u2019<\/p>\n
Pressed during a media conference on Wednesday, Mr Albanese declared that \u201cwe do have fuel security\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message to service stations which are overcharging is that the ACCC will take action against any inappropriate behaviour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message to Australians as well is to not take more fuel than you need. That is how you can help. Think of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to say that Australia has \u201cfuel security \u2026 but we need to be sensible about these issues and that\u2019s my message\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s no place for any company to try to take advantage of this to increase their profits at the expense of Australians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Woolworths weighs in <\/p>\n
Woolworths chief Amanda Bardwell says the retail giant is not facing any immediate fuel shortages or issues.<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s called on the government to ensure retailers are kept in the loop in real time to any developments that could hit supply chains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re less than three weeks into this situation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we want to make sure is that we\u2019re responding now, we\u2019re thinking about what this means in the midterm and we\u2019re also focused on it for the long-term. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs we look forward right now, we\u2019re not concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s economy will grind to a halt and supermarket shelves will be left empty if the nation runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[213363,40625,4587,60722,5806,161249,2840,18614,213351,45,49,48,213340,95,211404,213355,18577,46,213356,213361,213350,213346,213342,213341,213360,213339,213345,213352,213364,213343,213344,213347,5897,2454,119202,213358,3845,213354,1671,5185,18600,213357,213348,213349,202965,213353,19603,213365,213362,3849,18262,43149,212183,213359,181,18581],"class_list":["post-548079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-accounting-measure","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-asia","tag-asian-countries","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-backup-power-generation","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chilling-fuel-prediction","tag-china","tag-chris-bowen","tag-developed-nations","tag-eastern-asia","tag-economy","tag-economy-grinds","tag-economy-stops","tag-fuel-companies","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-fuel-crisis-response","tag-fuel-crisissky","tag-fuel-refineries","tag-fuel-stocks","tag-fuel-storage-levels","tag-fuel-supply","tag-gasoline-stocks","tag-global-supply-offline","tag-harrison-christian","tag-home-country-supply","tag-iran","tag-japan","tag-jet-fuel","tag-liquid-fuel-supplies","tag-malaysia","tag-nightmare-scenario","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-oil-refineries","tag-oil-stockpiles","tag-oil-volumes","tag-petrol-prices","tag-prioritise-domestic-demand","tag-queensland","tag-refined-fuels","tag-resource-nationalism","tag-singapore","tag-south-korea","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-southern-asia","tag-supermarket-shelves","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}