Australian fuel distributors face supply shortages at east-coast ports

“We are having to bring in some fuel from Queensland into areas of NSW today that we would normally source from Newcastle, due to availability of supply,” they said.

Ben Clifton, managing director at Tamworth-based Transwest Fuels, said customers in the agriculture sector were becoming more worried about fuel availability and prices as the war in the Middle East continued with no clear end in sight.

He said the concerns underscored the need for governments to do more to protect farmers by investing in decentralised fuel storage in regional areas, not just coastal storage hubs. “We have broad-acre farmers thinking, ‘Do we just sit out this season and not plant a crop?’” he said.

A spokesperson for Energy Minister Chris Bowen said commercial decisions about fuel sales on the spot market were a matter for companies, but Australia’s fuel supplies remained secure.

“We continue to have more fuel in Australia than we did at the beginning of the war with 3.3 billion litres locked in to arrive in the next four weeks,” the spokesperson said.

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