Anthony Albanese announces billions of litres of fuel due to arrive in Australia soon
Australia’s fuel reserves are now at their highest level since the start of the US-Iran war, but Anthony Albanese warns the crisis is far from over.
In the government’s weekly fuel update, the Prime Minister said 55 ships carrying a total of 3.2 billion liters of fuel were “locked in for delivery within the next four weeks”.
“What this means is that we now have a total of six and a half billion liters of fuel in Australia across all fuel types, which remains more than we had at the beginning of this conflict,” he said on Saturday.
“This is the highest total amount of fuel ever in Australia since we introduced our fuel stocks,” the Prime Minister said on Saturday.
“Australians can continue to have confidence in the work the government is doing to ensure our fuel security.”
But he warned that fuel supply problems would continue as long as the US-Iran conflict continues.
“Once again, we remain in level two, so we only ask Australians to buy the fuel you need, no more, no less.”
The start of the US-Iran war in late February led to fuel supply problems and inflation concerns in Australia.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off a fifth of the world’s oil supply, sending shockwaves through the supply chain and Australians being hit hard.
The Albanian government has since implemented a number of measures to support fuel supplies, including the adoption of a National Fuel Security Plan, the temporary reduction of fuel duty, the expansion of the province’s powers to undertake additional fuel cargoes, and the relaxation of fuel standards.
Australia currently has 46 days worth of petrol, 39 days worth of diesel and 34 days worth of jet fuel.
So far in July, 47 ships carrying fuel have arrived in Australia, following 91 ships in June.
“It is a clear statement to say that we are not yet over this whole conflict, we will continue to monitor these issues and remain accountable,” Mr Albanese said.
The volatility of the war caused prices to move erratically up and down around the $100 per barrel threshold for weeks.
This week, crude oil experienced its biggest single-day price increase since 2020 after US President Donald Trump announced he would restart the blockade on Iran.
Brent rose 9.6 percent to $83.30 per barrel.
The increase comes two weeks before fuel duty is set to return to 52.6 cents per litre, following a temporary reduction introduced in March.
