The man responsible for Australia’s fuel stocks believes drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oilfields have not caused an immediate threat to local supplies.
The drone strikes are expected to strip at least five per cent from global oil supplies, with some analysts predicting wholesale barrel prices could increase by 50 per cent.
But Energy Minister Angus Taylor didn’t want to weigh in on potential pain for Australians at the petrol bowser.
“I’m not in the business of forecasting oil prices and the government isn’t,” he told reporters on Monday.
He said the International Energy Agency had a regime to ensure countries from around the world contribute to global supplies.
“We are told by the IEA that there is no immediate threat to Australia’s fuel supplies and there are ample commercial stocks globally,” Mr Taylor said.
“This is a global issue and it will impact globally, not just locally.”
The minister expects production to come back “reasonably quickly”.
“We have good stocks around the world, and so the impact will be minimal,” he told ABC’s AM.
The United States has accused Iran of orchestrating Saturday’s strikes on Saudi oil plants, but Tehran has denied responsibility.
As the incident threatens to escalate into a military conflict, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said the Morrison government must keep an eye on its reserve fuel stocks.
“We’ve raised previously our concern about fuel security. That was one of the reasons for the shipping policy that we raised prior to the electoral loss, it was about fuel security,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“This is an issue for Australia and the government needs to deal with it.”
Mr Taylor expects oil production to bounce back to normal quickly, keeping price disruption to a minimum.
Even still, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers described the air strikes in Saudi Arabia as “incredibly concerning”.
“When you consider that alongside other issues in the Strait of Hormuz, other issues in the global economy, those issues are concerning,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“But our challenges in the Australian economy are still primarily home-grown.”
Extracted from The Age