Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King told the 12th Meeting of the Transport Industry Fuel Security Forum held earlier today that as at June 6, the Government had worked with fuel retailers to secure an additional 700 million litres of diesel to help ensure as much stability as possible in the market.
She also noted the Fuel Taskforce, which was stood up internally within the Department of Transport, is on hold but can be quickly regrouped if required.
Notably, the Minister said no decision had been officially made on extending the fuel excise cut and pause in the Road User Charge and so the community and industry should expect these concessions to end on June 30.
Obviously, this has an impact on the cost of living, and the transport industry and so Federal Treasury is still forecasting and modelling the likely impact, King added.
Fuel Excise & Road User Charge
► Infrastructure and Transport Ministers met last week with all acknowledging the impact on supply, and the pressure of elevated prices on the supply chain. There was discussion and enthusiasm for the jurisdictions and regulators to consider reforms in terms of longer-term resilience opportunities, such as movement on curfews, heavy vehicle access, and higher productivity vehicles.
► Land transport industry workshop issues that were identified have been fed into this process and are informing some of the further policy work.
Supply
► As at June 2, stock levels held under the Minimum Stockholding Obligation (MSO) were at 43 days for petrol, 30 days for jet fuel; and 36 days for diesel. These holdings have been very consistent for some time.
► An unprecedented volume of fuel has been imported, and we are at 100 per cent storage capacity with the need to increase our domestic storage subject to a bid process currently under way.
► The Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) is predicting a surge in demand and local stockouts when the GST/excise decisions revert – so industry is preparing for this spike.
► The global situation is stable but still uncertain as the situation is rapidly changing. Whatever happens there will be a long tail in terms of the impact on price and supply (six-12 months) due to the damage to Middle East facilities.
► The International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that even an increase of one per cent in supply will take three years to restore storage to pre-war global levels.
Pricing
► The AIP is tracking prices daily now through HERE – pricing is stable but will rise again if the Government does decide to end price support measures, which cumulatively is about 50 cents per litre at the bowser.
► The IEA analysis is for prices to be above average until the end of the year or potentially into Q1 2027.
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