Country a ‘long way’ from rationing petrol, says Chris Bowen

April 10, 2026 — 12:01

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said fuel supplies to the country remained stable and there was no need for further action under Australia’s fuel security plan.

Australia will remain under intense pressure from fuel shortages in the coming months as Iran blocks oil exports from the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

“I’m pleased with the supply to Australia at this point,” Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.Dominic Lorrimer

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Singapore on Friday to improve long-term fuel security. He will meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and the heads of fuel suppliers as he embarks on a region-wide mission.

However, Bowen said the government had secured additional fuel imports and there was no need to increase measures under the national fuel security plan.

The government said the country is in phase two of its four-phase fuel security plan. In the second phase, the government released some of the stockpiled fuel to deal with panic buying and helped importers buy more fuel.

The third phase will include voluntary fuel use measures such as carpooling.

Phase four will trigger rationing, including restrictions on drivers prioritizing supply to essential sectors such as emergency services.

“But we’re a long way from that. I’m happy with the supply to Australia at this point,” Bowen said.

He said the third phase would only be triggered if there was a disruption in supply “which we haven’t experienced yet”.

“Efforts are continuing to ensure prudent planning. If the international situation worsens” [the fuel security plan] “It sets clear prioritization for emergency services,” Bowen said.

As part of the second phase of its fuel plan, the government announced on Thursday it had secured the support of the country’s biggest fuel importers, Viva Energy and Ampol, to join a plan to urgently increase shipments to Australia.

In this program, taxpayers insure losses to fuel companies if they purchase expensive shipments before a sudden drop in oil prices in an increasingly unstable market.

Australia buys most of its fuel from Asian refineries, which have run out of storage tanks and likely have only weeks of supply left.

The Middle East provides more than 50 percent of the crude oil that Asian refineries import to produce petroleum and diesel fuel.

But they are trying to secure new supply lines from a long list of oil-producing countries such as the United States, Canada and Brazil.

Across Australia, 2.4 per cent of service stations are diesel-free, meaning 192 out of 7940 outlets.

The shortages were caused by panic buying and stockpiling by large industrial users.

Bowen said 97 of 2400 service stations in NSW had no diesel available on Friday and 19 were completely out of fuel.

In Victoria, 41 people did not have diesel and 27 people did not have unleaded petrol. In Queensland there was no diesel available on the 28th and no regular unleaded fuel on the 19th.

The number of outages had fallen since Thursday, when 112 service stations in NSW ran out of diesel and 24 had no fuel at all, while in Victoria 43 had no diesel and 26 had no unleaded fuel.

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