Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has given an update on the status of Australian fuel supplies, saying there was no imminent possibility of the country moving to a higher level of the national fuel security plan.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says there was no imminent possibility of the country moving to a higher level of the national fuel security plan, following a meeting of the national cabinet.
He said Australia is currently at level two and has 46 days’ worth of fuel supplies.
After the meeting, Premier Roger Cook revealed that Western Australia was buying eight million litres of fuel at $2.25 per litre, which was made available to the government by Rio Tinto.
"We work together to overcome global challenges," Mr Cook said.
"This will take our total amount of state-owned fuel to 12 million litres."
He said most of the latest spot purchase from Rio's supplier Viva Energy will be stored in Esperance.
At a Business News breakfast event last week, Mr Cook said he had little confidence that Australia could avoid moving to level three of the national fuel plan, but Mr Albanese said on Thursday, the nation was safe for now.
“The fuel supply outlook remains secure in the near term,” he said.
“It’s up to 46 days, which is higher than when this war began.”
After a national cabinet meeting, Premier Roger Cook said the government
He said the government had bought six extra cargos, or 300 million litres of diesel, through spot price purchasing and that companies were also sourcing fuel from alternate supply chains.
“For example, the United States has not traditionally been a big supplier, but has supplied 18 per cent,” he said.
“The strait (Strait of Hormuz) has been closed for two months now.
“We’re in deeply tumultuous and turbulent global times and people can see that.”
If the country moves to level three of the national plan, then “targeted action” will be taken by the federal and state governments to ensure critical services and industries receive fuel.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen used Thursday’s update to talk about renewable energy targets and the release of new data by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
“We now have 63.7 gigawatts of energy investment in our pipeline,” he said.
“Batteries are being deployed at a rapid rate around the world, but 10 per cent of all the batteries that were installed in terms of capacity were in Australia.”
He said homeowners had now installed more than 348,000 batteries around the country.
