Albanese Secures 200 Million Litres of Diesel From Asian Suppliers as Fuel Crisis Bites

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen say they’ve locked in another 200 million litres of diesel from Asian suppliers.

The move comes as Australia grapples with a fuel crisis triggered by its heavy dependence on Asian refineries that source most of their crude oil from the Middle East.

Albanese revealed the government-owned Export Finance Australia (EFA) had teamed up with BP Australia and Viva Energy to secure four extra cargoes of diesel from South Korea, Brunei, and Malaysia. Albanese visited the latter two last week.

“What we are doing each and every day is working in the interests of Australians. I think Australians know, they see it on their TV every night, that we are in a very volatile environment,” Albanese  told reporters in Sydney on April 22.

“There are different announcements each and every day and sometimes across just a number of hours about what is going on in the Middle East.

“We can’t control all of that, because we are not participants in that conflict. What we can control is how we respond, and we are responding by throwing everything at it, everything at supply to make a difference as well as the difference we have made to price by the cutting of fuel excise which has made a difference reducing the price directly by about 32 cents per litre.”

The Albanese government has embarked on a string of diplomatic engagements after fuel prices initially rocketed to almost $3.00 per litre for unleaded petrol after the Iran War broke out—exposing how precarious Australia’s fuel supply chain is.

Over recent decades amid the wave of globalisation, Australia outsourced most of its petrol, jet fuel, and diesel refining overseas due to the cheaper price point of operations in South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia—meaning the country now imports 90 percent of petrol.

While in 2000, Australia had eight local refineries to supply the country’s needs, this has now dwindled to just two refineries.

In response, the current government has focused on shoring up existing agreements with overseas suppliers to ensure petrol, diesel, and jet fuel supply continues to be shipped into the country.

Labor says it is engaging with Ampol, Park Fuels, IOR, and other fuel suppliers to gain more shipments in the coming days. Further, the government is working with fertiliser companies to secure more supply.

While the Queensland LNP government has taken steps to try establish its own crude extraction and refining locally.

Albanese Should Approach the US: Liberal Senator

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma said Prime Minister Albanese should be calling on the United States for fuel.

“I think Anthony Albanese rather than going to Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei should be going to Washington,” he said on the Today Show.

Albanese travelled to Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia in mid April as part of a fuel security mission.

Sharma said the United States is the world’s largest exporter of refined fuel products per day.

“They export about 6 million barrels of oil a day equivalent. Our consumption is about 1 million,” he said.

“They are a bigger exporter than Singapore, a bigger exporter than South Korea, a bigger exporter than Malaysia.”

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Angus Taylor suggested Australia needs not only more refineries, but also new reserves of oil.

“We’ve got to get those reserves of oil going out from under the ground, make it easier to get approvals, make it easier to extract the oil and use it for Australians,” he said on ABC Radio Perth on April 21.