200 million liters of diesel have arrived in Australia. Will fuel prices decrease or continue to rise due to inflation?
Anthony Albanese has announced fuel shipments are due to arrive in Australia, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen revealing where they’ll head first.
An extra 200 million litres of diesel are headed for Australian shores, the Prime Minister has announced, with the supplies secured through the federal government’s export finance scheme.
Two cargoes are coming from South Korea, one from Brunei and another from Malaysia, Anthony Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the extra cargoes would provide “extra supply to give us an extra buffer” and would arrive in Australia by the last week of May or the first week of June.
The cargoes had been secured through contracts with Viva Energy and BP Australia through Export Finance Australia, the federal government’s underwriting scheme.
“A total of just over 200 million litres going to Brisbane, to Geelong, to here in Sydney, and importantly, to Kwinana in Perth,” Mr Bowen said.
Mr Albanese said there was a “great deal of volatility” as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.
“We’ve been very clear about the consequences of this volatility. What we can do here in Australia is to do everything we can to secure supply,” he said.
“That’s precisely what we are doing. We’re also diplomatically have continued to call for a de-escalation. We’ve continued to work with partners as well as participate in discussions.”
He pointed to a conversation the night prior with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, where the two leaders expressed their “deep concern” about the situation in the Middle East and its consequences for the Indo-Pacific, including an unprecedented shock to global energy markets.
“I have other calls scheduled over coming days, including today. This is an extremely volatile period for the entire world,” he said.
“There is no getting away from that, and Australia is not immune from the consequences, but what we are doing is working hard each and every day in the interests of Australians.”
QLD invests $25m in oil refinery
Earlier, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli revealed the state government would invest $25m into Ampol’s Lytton Refinery in Brisbane to produce renewable diesel in an effort to boost Queensland’s fuel security and sovereign capability.
Construction is expected to begin by mid-2027. Once functional, 20 million litres of renewable diesel will be initially produced per year from 2028.
It will set the refinery on a path to potentially producing up to 750 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel by the early 2030s.
Mr Crisafulli told reporters the state had to have a “long-term vision” to avoid, in the future, having to deal with the challenges driving Australia’s current fuel crisis.
“We have to make sure that we don’t allow ourselves to be in this situation ever again,” he said.
“And every lever we are pulling is making sure that we can make a difference for the fuel security and the sovereign capability of our state and our country.”
The Ampol refinery is one of Australia’s two remaining refineries, with the other being the Viva Energy facility in Corio, near Geelong, which last week went up in flames after suspected equipment failure.