{"id":351762,"date":"2026-03-18T01:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351762\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:35:10","slug":"experts-petrol-warning-as-australian-retailers-join-farmers-in-raising-alarm-over-soaring-fuel-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351762\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert’s petrol warning as Australian retailers join farmers in raising alarm over soaring fuel costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Australian energy analyst has warned\u00a0the nation\u00a0faces \u201ctwo petrol crises\u201d,\u00a0as a\u00a0new\u00a0industry urges\u00a0the government to\u00a0assist\u00a0domestic businesses\u00a0amid fuel cost pressures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

MST Analyst and energy columnist Saul Kavonic told Sky News on Tuesday night Australia has not needed to panic over petrol so far \u2013 but a protracted war in the Middle East would be a serious cause for concern.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two petrol crises here,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first one is panic buying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t right now actually have less petrol than we did before the war in Iran but people are freaking and they\u2019re buying a lot more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other crisis is that we do face real shortages as this war in Iran goes on… that\u2019s why the government can\u2019t guarantee there won\u2019t be fuel rationing later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t needed to panic yet, but the concern is now that this war looks to be dragging out into April – we will start to feel those pressures.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes as Australian retailers joined\u00a0farmers\u00a0in airing their concerns<\/a> inflated fuel prices could prove overwhelming for domestic business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Australian Retail Council (ARC) said business was battling a \u201cdouble hit\u201d of supply price pressures and high interest rates after the Reserve Bank\u2019s decision to raise rates to 4.10 per cent on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Truckies<\/p>\n

\u201cRetail is again facing a double hit \u2013 rising supply chain costs from the global oil shock and a rate rise that will likely further squeeze household spending,\u201d CEO Chris Rodwell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRetail businesses have been operating under extremely tight margins as the cost of doing business has continued to rise… When the retail sector comes under pressure, the broader economy feels it very quickly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He urged the government to ease financial pressures on business in the upcoming budget.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ARC believed inconsistent state and territory regulations could be streamlined to help businesses relieve other cost pressures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Rodwell said: \u201cAt a time when households and businesses are facing rising fuel and borrowing costs, the focus must be on reducing unnecessary regulatory burden and supporting business confidence\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRetailers are looking for practical steps to reduce the cost of doing business and support economic growth,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s primary producers were among the first to feel the oil price shock from the Middle East.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farmers and transporters have faced rising fuel costs in the regions, some\u00a0of which the ACCC believes occurred before<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0oil price rises stemming from the conflict hit the Australian energy supply chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regional service stations have also suffered petrol and diesel shortages as some, concerned by the Iran war, stocked up and \u201cpanic-bought\u201d fuel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Kavonic said Australia\u2019s saving grace could be its natural gas reserves if the conflict were to drag on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is a very large (liquefied\u00a0natural gas) exporter, and the global LNG market is actually even tighter than the global oil market,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia accounts for about a fifth of the global LNG trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly 90\u00a0per cent of the nation\u2019s exports go to Asia, where\u00a0the majority of\u00a0Australia\u2019s fuel is refined.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japan, China,\u00a0Korea\u00a0and Singapore are the principal importers of Australian gas,\u00a0which\u00a0Mr\u00a0Kavonic\u00a0argued should give the nation leverage in the refined oil trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur major trading partners… rely on us for our LNG,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should… be seeing the Australian government reminding our trade partners that we are a reliable supplier of LNG.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey rely on us for their gas security and therefore we should be at the absolute top of the priority list for exports of fuel which rely\u00a0on from\u00a0them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian energy analyst has warned\u00a0the nation\u00a0faces \u201ctwo petrol crises\u201d,\u00a0as a\u00a0new\u00a0industry urges\u00a0the government to\u00a0assist\u00a0domestic businesses\u00a0amid fuel cost pressures.\u00a0\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[986,72,63461,113,9658,61,60,1196,63462,4674,2286],"class_list":["post-351762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-diesel","tag-economy","tag-fuel","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-middle-east","tag-petrol","tag-retail","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}