{"id":345237,"date":"2026-03-24T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/345237\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:36:19","slug":"australia-to-face-fuel-supply-cliff-at-end-of-april-as-petrol-prices-reach-record-highs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/345237\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia to face fuel supply cliff at end of April as petrol prices reach record highs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated March 24, 2026 \u2014 5:22pm,first published 4:05pm<\/p>\n

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Petrol prices have reached a record high of an average of $2.38 a litre, as Australia\u2019s fuel supplies head for a cliff at the end of April when the Asian refineries that deliver 80 per cent of Australia\u2019s supply exhaust their inventories due to the Iran war oil crisis.<\/p>\n

The government and Australian fuel importers are scrambling to lock in shipments of replacement fuel and are in talks with nations across Asia and Europe, as well as the US. The negotiations have become even more urgent after China, which supplies about 4 per cent of the nation\u2019s diesel, paused exports until the end of March.<\/p>\n

\"AsianAsian fuel refineries supply most of Australia\u2019s petrol and diesel. Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Ampol, which runs 1800 service stations across the country, is scrambling to find refined fuel to ship into Australia beyond mid-April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of buffer in the system but, ultimately, if this runs longer than a few weeks, you\u2019re going to see pressure on prices and global supply chains,\u201d Ampol chief executive Matt Halliday said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has said that there are 81 fuel shipments bound to reach Australia by mid-May, and only six have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

However, the fuel exporters operate just-in-time supply chains and have not yet filled these shipments.<\/p>\n

Asian refineries will exhaust their stocks of crude oil within a month, so it remains unclear how these shipments would be filled.<\/p>\n

Bowen said earlier this week that it was highly unlikely all shipments would stop, but said supply could become more irregular, which government would manage with fuel suppliers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be bumps in supply, but governments will work with the refiners and the importers to manage those and minimise impact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The average national petrol price reached the unprecedented level of $2.38 for regular unleaded in the week ending March 20, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum weekly price report, which eclipses the record average of $2.19 set the previous week and is up 27 per cent since the war began on February 28.<\/p>\n

Regular unleaded petrol reached $2.12 in March 2022 at the peak of the energy crunch caused by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Bowen announced a temporary reduction of diesel standards, which he said would provide greater flexibility for Australian importers to source fuel from markets with marginally lower flashpoints \u2013 the temperature at which fuel can burn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis six-month adjustment will lower what\u2019s known as the flashpoint for diesel, from 61.5 degrees Celsius, to 60.5 degrees Celsius, increasing diesel supply options from refiners and international sources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"PetrolPetrol prices keep going up as the conflict in the Middle East continues.Max Mason-Hubers<\/p>\n

Bowen earlier this month lowered petrol standards for 60 days, which he said would enable 100 million extra litres to flow into the local market.<\/p>\n

Australian Institute of Petroleum chief executive Malcolm Roberts said that if Iran kept the Strait of Hormuz shut for another week or two, then refineries in Asia that supply about 80 per cent of Australia\u2019s refined fuel would struggle to refill inventories.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this continues, eventually there will be a point where those refineries are well and truly short of the crude oil they need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf refineries haven\u2019t been able to find some replacement supply, they\u2019re going to start cutting back production, which some refineries apparently are already doing, and they will also come under pressure to prioritise their domestic market … we all know it\u2019s exceptional circumstances, so we\u2019ll just have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Roberts said solutions could be found between now and May to boost global supply of oil, including increased exports via the Red Sea, further releases of oil from nations\u2019 strategic stockpiles, extra production from producers such as Canada, or increased use of Russian oil previously embargoed after the Ukraine invasion.<\/p>\n

Macquarie University senior lecturer Lurion De Mello said there was \u201cconsiderable worry\u201d about the future of fuel imports, given there were no shipments on their way to Australia at present that were set to land after mid-April, according to maritime shipping data.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a reason for extreme alarm, but it is concerning that shipping data hasn\u2019t been updated with deliveries of refined fuel beyond the 15th of April,\u201d De Mello said.<\/p>\n

Other countries in the region that supply Australia with refined fuel had also built significant oil and fuel reserves as a contingency in case of a major disruption, which contrasted with Australia\u2019s approach to fuel security, De Mello said.<\/p>\n

\" Photo: Matt Golding<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Korea, Singapore, Japan, China have massive amounts of storage because they want to be well prepared. We\u2019re always the laggard with a \u2018she\u2019ll be all right\u2019 attitude. But we\u2019re not prepared for this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the volume of supply reaching Australia has remained stable, panic buying has caused localised shortages, especially in regional areas.<\/p>\n

Bowen told parliament on Tuesday that in NSW, 289 service stations were without at least one type of fuel, including 164 without diesel. In Victoria, 162 are without at least one type of fuel, as are 35 in Queensland, 46 in South Australia, six in Western Australia and six in Tasmania.<\/p>\n

The opposition has accused Bowen of failing to lead state governments in a national response while asking why the consumer watchdog was unable to crack down on potential profiteering.<\/p>\n

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said: \u201cThe government a couple of weeks ago made a huge song and dance about giving extra powers to the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] to be able to deal with gouging. Where is that legislation?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MikeMike Foley<\/a> is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.\"NickNick Toscano<\/a> is a business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 24, 2026 \u2014 5:22pm,first published 4:05pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-345237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}