Australians rush to fill up amid fuel price warnings
Fears the price of fuel in SA will surge is seeing motorists rush to fill up with the nation’s reserve revealed.
Source: HCH Television Digital
Australia has just over a month in fuel reserves, amid fears the conflict spreading across the Middle East could lead to a surge in petrol prices.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen told parliament Australia had 36 days of petrol reserves, 34 days of diesel and 32 days of jet fuel.
Responding to a question from One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce on Monday, Bowen said the reserves were the highest in 15 years.
The figures include fuel held in Australia or on ships on their way to Australia in our exclusive economic zone.
Unleaded 91 prices were between 211.9 and 213.9 a litre in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on Tuesday, while diesel ranged from 172.9 to 189.9.
US and Israeli strikes against Iran — and Tehran’s retaliation — have prompted precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas facilities across the Middle East resulting in surging energy prices.
You might like
Qatar has halted its production of liquefied natural gas after one of its plants was attacked by two Iranian drones. Qatari LNG production is equivalent to about 20 per cent of global supply.
Saudi authorities shut down their largest domestic oil refinery, Ras Tanura, after intercepting Iranian drones.
The development followed the suspension of most oil production in Iraqi Kurdistan and several major Israeli gas fields, throttling exports to Egypt.
Benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices have soared by almost 50 per cent but the European Commission did not expect the widening conflict in the Middle East to have any immediate impact on the European Union’s security of oil and gas supplies, a spokesperson said.
“We’re not taking any emergency measures or anything like this. There is no shortage, there is no emergency for gas. Gas imports are well diversified,” the spokesperson said.
The EU’s oil coordination group will meet shortly to assess the situation.
Stay informed, daily
Oil prices surged as much as 13 per day intraday to above $82 ($116) a barrel, the highest since January 2025, as the conflict ground shipping to a near halt in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supply flows.
Insurance companies are cancelling war-risk coverage for vessels in the Gulf, with at least four tankers damaged, two seafarers killed and 150 ships stranded around the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipping through the strait between Iran and Oman, which carries about a fifth of oil consumed globally, as well as large quantities of gas, has ground to a near halt after vessels in the area were hit as Iran retaliated to US and Israeli strikes.
A bomb-carrying drone boat struck a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, killing one mariner, Oman said.
Iran has threatened vessels approaching the Strait of Hormuz and is believed to have launched multiple attacks.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco’s 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) Ras Tanura refinery is part of an energy complex on the kingdom’s Gulf coast that is also a critical export terminal for Saudi crude oil.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, which exported 200,000 bpd via pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port in February, companies including DNO, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Dana Gas and HKN Energy have stopped output at their fields as a precaution, with no damage reported.
Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps about 4.5 per cent of global oil supplies. Iran’s output is about 3.3 million bpd of crude, plus 1.3 million bpd of condensate and other liquids.
-with AAP and agencies
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
