Essay by Eric Worrall
Miners could be next.
War in the Middle East already making Australia’s fuel struggles the toughest in decades
By Luke Cooper, Jessica Ross, Janel Shorthouse, Joanna Prendergast, Tara Delandgrafft and Callum LiddelowTopic:Petrol Prices
Wed 11 MarIn short:
Australia faces a worsening fuel shortage due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Regional businesses have started rationing fuel, while some towns, farmers and transport companies report they have been cut off completely.
What’s next?
Suppliers say farmers and fishing operations are days from grinding to a halt, and Easter food supplies are at risk.Dozens of docked fishing trawlers and other vessels have been stranded as a result of Australia’s worsening fuel shortages, which some distributors have described as the worst they have seen.
Across the country, retailers have started rationing fuel or limiting sales to emergencies, while some towns, farmers and transport companies have been cut off completely.
Economists warn petrol prices nationwide could rise by 40 cents a litre in weeks, due to the impact on fuel supplies from the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The fallout from the conflict has led officials to warn against panic buying.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has met representatives from the diesel and petrol industry to discuss the issue.How the Middle East war spiked Australia’s fuel prices
“They have confirmed to me that every single contract is being honoured,” Mr Bowen said in Canberra.
…
Danny Kreutzer, the founder of Queensland-based fuel transport company Westlink Petroleum, said his requests for fuel from Brisbane-based terminals to service his spot market clients were virtually cut off in the wake of the war in Iran.
“We were only getting 10 per cent of our usage,” he told the ABC.
“Eighty per cent of our business is farmers, transport operators [and] lot feeds.
“We’re just down to selecting who needs the fuel the most.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2026-03-11/iran-war-impact-on-australian-fuel-supply-worst-some-have-seen/106437924
I spoke to a farmer friend whose land is located near the national capital Canberra. According to him local diesel supplies are increasingly unreliable.
As a joke I suggested my farmer friend go electric, he laughed and said “I need my tractor for more than an hour per day”.
Nobody in his area believes Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen’s assurances about security of supply, because most of Australia’s supply comes through the Straits of Hormuz. Australia’s lack of domestic refinery capacity also means most of our fuel is refined in Asia.
The Asian refiners who supply Australia have a rich choice of alternative clients, including China, which is acting to secure its own supply. With everyone declaring Force Majeure because of the gulf crisis, those Asian refiners don’t have to honour their Australian supply contracts, especially if someone a lot closer to home offers more money, and is someone they are more reluctant to displease.
Farmers can do their own geopolitical calculations. All of the farmers my friend knows are filling 10,000 litre tanks or bigger, in anticipation of an imminent supply interruption.
I suggested my farmer friend drive to Canberra to fill up, because our federal politicians will be the last to run dry.
Unfortunately filling up in our national capital is not an option for Queensland farmers – the Queensland border is hundreds of miles from Canberra. Fuel shortages in Queensland are bad news for Australia’s food security.
In Australia’s northern breadbasket sowing season has already begun – in Queensland, especially in the tropical North, farmers practice extreme early sowing when growing temperate climate crops like potatoes, to beat the January summer heat. Even 10,000 litre diesel tanks won’t last long during sowing season. And once the tractors stop, once the diesel to run the irrigation pumps runs dry, let’s just say I’m not expecting an abundance of root vegetables or fruit this year.
Miners will likely be the last to shut down, because miners in remote locations at the end of long supply routes are used to dealing with slow supply chains and long interruptions caused by weather or other problems. But eventually they’ll run out as well. Unlike the East Coast of Australia, which can cover about 20% of demand from domestic production, Western Australia, where most of Australia’s mines are based, has no refinery capacity whatsoever. While Western Australia produces 70% of Australia’s condensate, Western Australians are 2000+ miles from the nearest East Coast refinery, with a lot of desperate East coast clients between them and any domestic refined fuel supply.
Australia has the resources to be energy self sufficient, and we export a lot of coal and gas, but our woke politicians refuse to allow companies to process those resources onshore to the fullest possible extent. Somehow shipping the gas, coal and condensate offshore is more climate friendly than running a domestic refinery. I can’t imagine the paperwork and bureaucratic reviews you would have to endure to commission a new refinery in Australia. In the State of Victoria, one of Australia’s most fossil fuel resource packed regions, and home until 2022 of the Altona refinery in Melbourne, a fracking ban was enshrined in the state constitution in 2021.
Australia could be about to pay a heavy price for our green regulatory purge of local refinery capacity.
