00:01The government is still insisting that Australia has plenty of supply of fuel and that the
00:07issue is lying with the demand side of things.
00:10Energy Minister Chris Bowen says that Australia has plenty of fuel in its reserves and that
00:16shipments of fuel from overseas are still arriving as expected on time.
00:21The shortages, they say, come from people who are panic buying.
00:25Now, it's understandable that during this global uncertainty, people want to make sure
00:29they're not caught out without fuel, but Energy Minister Chris Bowen says people who
00:35are filling up jerry cans full of fuel to have in storage or even selling it on platforms
00:41like Facebook Marketplace are contributing to this increased demand.
00:46He says it's doubled and therefore there are shortages, particularly in regional areas.
00:51Now, the issue with this is that it could go on to affect things like Australia's food
00:55chain, having wider implications for the country.
00:59So, the government already made an announcement yesterday about making extra fuel available.
01:04What are the announcements today?
01:06Yeah.
01:07So, yesterday's announcement was about lowering the quality standards for fuel.
01:13So, we changed our standards in December of last year.
01:18So, since then, we have been exporting that fuel to other countries who still have those
01:23lower standards, countries like Japan and Singapore.
01:27But yesterday, Chris Bowen announced that they were relaxing the standards here in Australia
01:31again for 60 days to allow more fuel to flow into the market.
01:35Today, he backed that up with another announcement.
01:39Australia has these onshore reserves of fuel that can essentially be used in case of emergency
01:46only.
01:46This is what the government talks about when they say we have 36 days left of petrol and
01:5132 days of diesel.
01:53These are stockpiling requirements that were brought in in 2023 and it means all fuel companies
01:59have to have minimum fuel reserves but they can't sell it unless the government give them the
02:05all clear to.
02:06And so, that's essentially what has happened today.
02:09But there are some parameters.
02:11They can only sell about 20% or around six days worth of fuel and it has to flow first
02:17to
02:18regional Australia where those shortages are being felt the most.
02:21So, essentially, it's about getting more fuel in circulation and to help with that high demand.
02:28Chris Bowen, the energy minister, though, says with these announcements he doesn't want
02:33people to panic further.
02:34However, here's what he had to say.
02:37The sort of, you know, inflammatory running out language, we are nowhere near that.
02:40We have minimum stock obligations in place.
02:43I've announced a sensible calibration today of those.
02:4780% of it remains for future needs if necessary.
02:50That's what the MSO is designed for.
02:52That's what we're operating.
02:54Now, as to whether or not this will actually help reduce prices at the bowser, that's an
03:00entirely different question altogether.
03:02Experts warn that the disruption to the global market is still so large that prices could
03:08continue to rise, especially with a fifth of the world's oil being shipped through the
03:13Strait of Hormuz and those shipments being disrupted.
03:17But Australia also isn't the only country to unleash its reserves.
03:21And so there's concerns that the releasing of these emergency stocks is going to send
03:26a message to the energy market that all of these nations clearly don't believe that
03:31the war in the Middle East is going to wrap up in a week or so, as Donald Trump has
03:35suggested
03:36it in the past few days.
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