Australia fuel shortages deepen as Prime Minister set to travel to Brunei and Malaysia for supply talks

The Prime Minister has declared his second trip to Asia in a week to secure fuel supplies for Australia is “very significant” but has sidestepped questions about what deals he hopes to clinch from the leaders of Brunei and Malaysia.

Anthony Albanese has also defended his government’s “modest” $20m advertising campaign providing motorists with fuel-saving tips, as Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirms more than 200 service stations are now without diesel.

On Tuesday Mr Albanese will fly to the Kingdom of Brunei for a private audience with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, before meeting his Malaysian counterpart in a visit first revealed by The West Australian earlier this month.

“The trip this week will be very significant and the impacts that are happening on a day-to-day basis with announcements just reinforce the fact that we are living in very uncertain times,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

“And when you have that, what you have to do is to act with certainty. What we are acting, with certainty, is to maximise Australia’s opportunities to secure supply.”

When pressed on what agreements he expected to secure during his visits to Brunei and Malaysia, the PM refused to say but insisted “we have good relationships and I’m looking forward to the visit”.

“We’ll negotiate with respect and treat both the Sultan of Brunei and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim with respect by not pre-empting those discussions. But we have good relationships with both countries.

“When it comes to Brunei, they provide about 9 per cent of our diesel, but also a major supplier of fertiliser. And Malaysia provides the third-largest imports to Australia. And so, we will negotiate with them in good faith.

Last week during a meeting in Singapore with his counterpart Lawrence Wong, Mr Albanese secured a promise of continued fuel in exchange for Australia keeping up its gas exports, with both leaders also pledging to make the commitment legally binding.

Asked about his comments suggesting his visit to Singapore had put Australia to “the front of the queue” for refined fuels, Mr Albanese declared: “we have important relationships, and we are working to secure the Australian national interest”.

During a regular update on Monday about Australia’s fuel supply, Energy Minister Chris Bowen revealed the country currently has 38 days’ worth of petrol, 28 days’ of jet fuel and 31 days’ of diesel in reserves.

“As you will have noticed, these figures haven’t moved around all that much over the last month or so and that’s a good thing,” Mr Bowen said.

“That shows that while fuel is getting out the door at record rates across Australia, fuel is also coming in the door at Australia’s import terminals.”

“I can confirm we have 57 ships currently on the way to Australia with various types of fuel — crude oil, jet fuel, diesel, and petrol. That’s about standard for this time of year, it’s what we would expect — 57 ships on the way to Australia”.

The Albanese government has also hit back at Opposition criticism for spending millions of dollars on a new advertising campaign urging Australians to pump up their car tyres, ditch their roof racks and catch the train to work.

“It is because we need to give people that information. And, viewers on Channel Seven will get to see the ad and get to see that we have a four-point plan. We’re at level two now which is keep the economy moving,” Mr Albanese told Seven’s Sunrise.

“One of the things with the experience of COVID we want to avoid that heavy-handed action. We want people to go about in a sensible way and that’s why a public information campaign is very important.”