Chris Bowen says Australia has enough fuel for 39 days, urges drivers to take only what’s needed

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has assured Australians the nation won’t run out of fuel, at least not in the next 39 days — but he urged Aussies not to buy more fuel than they needed this Easter long weekend.

Mr Bowen, speaking in Sydney, said Australia had 39 days worth of petrol in supplies (1.7 billion litres), 29 days worth of diesel (2.6 billion litres) and 30 days worth of jet fuel (847 million litres).

“Fuel is going out the door to service stations and farmers and fuel is coming in the door at Australia’s import terminals and our refineries are working full pelt.

“The total number of service stations without diesel in Australia, which is where the main pressure has been, is 312 out of the around 8000 service stations.

“Industry and government have been working closely together to ensure that we are filling those gaps which have been caused by that very big increase in demand as quickly as possible so that Australians can have more confidence that when they go to the service station the fuel they need will be there.”

Even so, according to figures supplied to The Sunday Times by Mr Bowen’s office on Saturday, there still remains a high number of WA service stations which have run out of diesel or unleaded fuel.

According to the figures, 28 service stations in WA had run out of diesel and 50 had run out of unleaded fuel.

Mr Bowen again urged Australians to be frugal at the bowser.

“The key message remains: Regardless, please buy as much fuel as you need, buy no less than you normally would but don’t buy more,” he said.

“It’s not helpful. It makes the challenges worse and if you are storing it (fuel) in a jerry can in your garage it’s unsafe.”

And in a sign of how troubled these times were, Mr Bowen even offered up tips for drivers on how to make a tank of fuel stretch further.

“(There is) little things you can do, like checking your tyre pressure can make a big difference to your fuel efficiency and man you can get more kilometres out of a litre of petrol or diesel,” he said.

The war in Iran has played havoc with oil supplies coming out of the Strait of Hormuz.

Australia imports 90 per cent of its refined fuel, with much of that coming out of Asia.

Mr Bowen said there were 53 ships carrying fuel on their way to Australia and were expected to arrive this month, with 3.7 billion litres of fuel on board.

“While the majority of our fuel has traditionally come from Australian refineries, we have been sourcing fuel from the United States, Mexico and from other countries,” Mr Bowen said.

With the conflict now in its fifth week, there is still not a clear picture of when Donald Trump will end the war with Iran.

Mr Bowen acknowledged that even when the war ends, the after effects will be felt for some time.

“The sooner it (war) end the better,” Mr Bowen said.

“And even if it ended today, there will be impacts on the supply chain that will be with us for weeks and months ahead..”

Just this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong joined 40 countries on a ministerial call to “ensure critical waterways are not held hostage by the Iranian regime.”

Mr Bowen reiterated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s stance that Australia would not take offensive action against Iran and would not deploy troops on the ground in Iran.

“We have made it clear that we won’t be involved in any offensive arrangements in the Middle East,” Mr Bowen said.

“We won’t be changing our military stance.”