00:01This is good news, Ros, that there'll be more fuel coming into the market.
00:07The government's right, there hasn't been a problem with supply.
00:10The problem has really been around the supply chain, and that's been, really has affected
00:17regional communities as well.
00:19I mean, the minimum stock holding obligation, which was being drawn down upon today, in
00:23today's announcement, was established essentially for emergency situations like we're in now.
00:30What we have is 36 days of petrol in storage as part of the minimum stock holding obligation.
00:37Taking a week out will bring us down to 29 days, but that's still two days above the floor
00:44of the MSO, which is 27 days of petrol.
00:47So we're still sitting above what the minimum requirement is for petrol in the country.
00:51OK, so the energy minister, though, says that the release of oil from these reserves won't
00:57be instant.
00:57So how are those supplies actually released?
01:01Well, what hasn't been worked out yet, Ros, is who gets it and how they're going to get
01:06it.
01:07And those details will be worked out over time.
01:09This won't be a problem that's solved next week.
01:12It'll probably take a few weeks for these suppliers to get out to where they're needed.
01:16But we'll work with the government to work out on how that best can be executed.
01:21As you said, the minister wants the companies releasing fuel from storage to prioritise supply
01:27to regional agricultural maritime customers.
01:29But is it up to them?
01:31You say it's going to be worked out in the near future.
01:33But is it the fuel companies who decide where it goes?
01:37I think the fuel companies will work hand in glove with the government to work out how
01:41those suppliers get to where they need to get to.
01:43OK, so you say we have, what, 34 days of diesel in reserve, 36 days of petrol in reserve before
01:51these reserves are tapped.
01:53But what happens when the clock ticks down?
01:56Well, we have 36 days of petrol, you're correct, and we have 32 days of diesel.
02:02So that'll take us down to 25 days of diesel.
02:06That can be replenished, of course, and we can go back up again.
02:10The minimum stock holding obligation for diesel is 32 days.
02:14So we're going to drop below that floor.
02:16But those stocks can be replenished at a later date.
02:20OK.
02:20Where does Australia get its fuel from, Rowan?
02:24Over 55% of our fuel comes out of Singapore.
02:28And that's fed in from countries like China, South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and
02:35so on.
02:36And overall, we get fuel from about 30 different countries.
02:40So our risk is spread quite wide, if you like.
02:47We're not reliant on just fuel coming out of the Middle East, for example.
02:51OK.
02:52So the energy minister has also spoken about lower quality fuel, fuel that's usually exported.
02:58That's going to be sold in the domestic market now for the next 60 days.
03:01But what sort of quantities are involved there?
03:04And will that lower quality mean less efficient performance in cars or wherever that fuel is
03:09used?
03:10Ros, that is also welcome, getting an extra 100 million litres a month into the system.
03:16That will take pressure off the retailers.
03:19That fuel that we're talking about is 10 parts per million in sulphur.
03:26And we were operating at 50 parts per million sulphur, which is all quite scientific and
03:31boring.
03:31But that was the quality of fuel we were using in our vehicles up until the 14th of December
03:38last year when the standards changed and we came down to 10 parts per million.
03:43So in a matter of 14 weeks ago, we were using exactly the same fuel.
03:46OK.
03:47So right at the start of our chat, you said the problem wasn't in supply, which is what
03:51the energy minister has been saying, but there's a problem with supply chains.
03:55Can you expand on that?
03:56Yeah, supply chain and panic buying, if you like.
04:01So retailers' inventories have been reduced.
04:04So where they might be normally sitting on three or five days worth of fuel in a tank,
04:09some of them are sitting on 24 hours worth of inventory.
04:12So that's where the sort of the panic buying has had an impact on retailers and the inventory
04:18and stock that they're carrying.
04:21And that's why, sorry, that's why you might see sometimes a grade of fuel isn't available
04:26at a certain petrol site, but that might be replenished that evening or the next day.
04:32So essentially the outages aren't long, they're just around supply chain and getting the fuel
04:38to those sites.
04:39So the message right now from the government, Rowan, then is don't panic, but could we get
04:43to a point where fuel is rationed?
04:46I wouldn't see any need for that at all, Ros.
04:50Rowan Lee, thanks very much for joining us.
04:53Thanks, Ros.
Comments