six-month loosening of diesel standards<\/a> that will allow Australia to source supplies from more markets, including the US, Canada and the EU.<\/p>\nA fuel distribution centre in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville. Photograph: William West\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Soaring diesel prices and supply constraints are already hitting several sectors of the economy, including the mining industry, which consumed about 35% of diesel used in Australia in 2023-2024.<\/p>\n
While large miners are shielded at this stage, industry leaders confirmed that some smaller companies that rely on independent fuel distributors were scaling back operations due to supply shortages.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile no disruptions to major member operations have occurred, shortages in some regional areas are placing pressure on explorers and smaller operators,\u201d Aaron Morey, the chief executive of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome smaller mining operations have already reduced non-essential activities to manage fuel supply. Any further constraints will increasingly come at the expense of day-to-day operations, with flow-on impacts for jobs and taxation revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warren Pearce, the CEO of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, called on governments to put pressure on major fuel wholesalers to ensure supplies flowed to the smaller distributors.<\/p>\n
Miners want to be considered an essential service if the crisis worsens and fuel rationing is implemented, guaranteeing the sector can keep operating as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWestern Australia\u2019s resources sector is the engine room of the national economy \u2013 and that engine cannot function without diesel and jet fuel,\u201d Morey said.<\/p>\n
The resources minister, Madeleine King, would not be drawn on the prospect of fuel rationing but stressed that \u201cAustralia\u2019s very well supplied right now with fuel\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter Khoury, spokesperson for the NRMA, said state and federal governments could be encouraging motorists to use E10 fuels, and backed even higher ethanol concentration \u2013 noting E15 fuel was sold in the US and countries such as Japan and India were considering E20.<\/p>\n
In a statement to Guardian Australia, a spokesperson for Bowen confirmed his department and the fuel standards body were examining whether increased ethanol levels could help bolster fuel supplies without compromising safety.<\/p>\n
Australian producers make ethanol from either wheat starch or molasses sugar, with ethanol blended into refined petroleum.<\/p>\n
Proponents argue it is a more renewable source that helps existing petrol stocks stretch further. Only New South Wales and Queensland have mandated the use of E10 in their fuel supplies, but ethanol producers have suggested other states follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia isn\u2019t Christopher Columbus here, a number of countries are looking to increase the amount of ethanol they use,\u201d Khoury said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an undersold fuel, people haven\u2019t been using it who could be… Encouraging people to use it as an option is something we can do in the short term. Ramping up production is a longer term strategy, and there\u2019s clearly merit in doing that in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said states without an ethanol mandate could consider such a move, in pursuit of unlocking extra petrol supply; shadow energy minister Dan Tehan said all options should be on the table.<\/p>\n
Shahana McKenzie, the CEO of Bioenergy Australia, said even existing mandates were not being strictly adhered to, claiming petrol sold as E10 could have a far lower ethanol concentration. She said a national mandate, even applied temporarily, could boost the ethanol industry to stretch fuel supplies further.<\/p>\n
\u201cA situation like this is a good time for reflecting on how resilient we\u2019re operating in our fuel system. In Australia we\u2019re not operating at capacity on any of our refining, either ethanol or biodiesel,\u201d McKenzie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government will consider an increase in ethanol levels in fuel to boost fuel supplies as farmers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-345992","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\/345992","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=345992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}