Panic buying prompts PM to reassure Australians over fuel supply

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sought to reassure Australians that the country's fuel supply remains "secure" as prices soar and following reports of panic buying and petrol stations running dry since the start of the Iran war.

"The longer this war goes on, the greater the impact will be. But we continue to act to prepare and shield Australians from the worst of it," Albanese told reporters on Friday.

There have been reports of truck drivers and other motorists stranded, while businesses say rising costs are affecting their viability.

The government says demand and distribution issues have caused shortages rather than supply, which it says remains at the same level as before the war began.

"For the next few weeks, Australia's supply of petrol and diesel and oil will be the same, if not higher, than it normally would be," Energy Minister Chris Bowen said alongside Albanese.

In Cairns, Queensland, the BBC found a small independent garage that tells a pretty typical story in Australia. It has run out of unleaded petrol and the price of diesel is 85% higher than it was before the war in Iran started.

In New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, one in seven retailers say they are out of at least one type of fuel.

Australia has experienced steep price rises since the US and Israel attacked Iran and the Strait of Hormuz was closed, causing the price of oil to jump.

The average retail price of petrol reached 238 Australian cents ($1.64; £1.23) a litre as of Sunday compared to 171 cents four weeks earlier, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.

The price of diesel in Sydney has meanwhile risen to the 314.5 cents a litre as of Thursday, according to the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA), its highest ever price.

Hundreds of petrol stations across the country have reported running out of at least one type of fuel this week.

But shortages are due to people changing their buying habits, NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury told the BBC. "People are filling up jerry cans of fuel and storing it in their garages," he said.

"We're hearing increasingly of transport companies telling their drivers that if you're half full and you see diesel, buy it."

Independent petrol stations were struggling to get fuel because they do not buy on long-term contracts which are prioritised by the oil companies, he added.

Albanese is expected to hold an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday to work out a response to manage the fuel crisis.

The government, which has so far ruled out any form of rationing, has also sought to alleviate shortages by releasing oil from the national stockpile and lowering fuel standards.

Friday's statements came a day after a cyclone in western Australia triggered outages at two of the world's largest LNG plants, adding further pressure to the global market.

The two plants, Gorgon and Wheatstone, supply about 5% of the global market, according to Chevron.