00:01This island here is our biggest supplier of petrol, 55% of our unleaded comes from Singapore.
00:08It's also our second biggest supplier of diesel and jet fuel.
00:10So these are the liquid fuels we import to keep our economy running.
00:14The Prime Minister wants to make sure those fuel supplies keep flowing.
00:18So he will arrive here later today and tomorrow he'll hold a one-on-one meeting
00:22with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong.
00:25Now this is a meeting that was scheduled to take place this year
00:28but it's been brought forward in light of this global energy crisis.
00:32Mr Wong certainly is a man who's in demand in this region.
00:35Singapore is a huge oil refining and trading hub and Australia is not the only customer.
00:41But last month Prime Ministers Albanese and Wong signed a joint fuel security agreement
00:46basically to maintain the flow of fuel from Singapore to Australia
00:50but also the flow of LNG from Australia to Singapore.
00:53Gas is what runs the electricity system here.
00:56So this visit is really about sort of cementing that agreement.
00:59But this is all part of a regional mission by the Prime Minister.
01:03He's spoken this week to the Premier of China, our biggest jet fuel supplier
01:07and also the Sultan of Brunei.
01:09And he's expected to make some more visits to this region in coming weeks
01:13as he tries to really secure Australia's imports.
01:16Can we expect any firm agreements then between the two leaders on fuel supplies?
01:21Yeah, that's a good question because Singapore has three big refineries and they're all privately owned.
01:26So a lot of the experts I was talking to in the lead up to this trip have questioned the
01:30extent to which the Singaporean government,
01:32a very free enterprise focused, a mercantile focused government would seek to interfere in what are really commercial contract negotiations
01:40and supply contracts or even to direct supplies.
01:45But what we have seen with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a big oil supply cutoff really
01:51for these refineries here.
01:52And so the refineries themselves have scaled back production.
01:56So the concern is if things get worse, if contracts need to be prioritised,
02:02will that Australia would at least be front of mind towards the front of the queue in terms of securing
02:07the much needed fuel that we need in Australia.
02:10For now, though, that is not the problem.
02:13Australia's fuel supplies are holding up.
02:16We're told supplies are secured until well into May.
02:20But, of course, the question is what happens after that, if indeed this ceasefire fails and the Strait of Hormuz
02:25remains closed.
02:26The government very much hoping that the ceasefire does hold and the Strait is reopened
02:32and that this 20% of the globe's oil supply will actually start to sort of flow again.
02:38Jane Norman in Singapore, thank you.
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