Portfolio — 18 April 2026

The most consequential development on 18 April was diplomatic rather than logistical: the Prime Minister confirmed that Iran agreed at the Strait of Hormuz Freedom of Navigation Summit — attended by 49 countries over 17–18 April — to open the Strait for all passage [TA-260418-climat-d72756c15b7c]. Australia will participate in a follow-up conference in London this week.

The Strait agreement marks the clearest turning point in the international supply disruption that has driven Australia's fuel crisis since late February, but the government was explicit that normalisation remains months away. Ships in transit require 30–90 days to reach Australian ports, sea-mine clearance is incomplete, infrastructure repairs are ongoing, and insurance barriers for commercial shipping have not been resolved [TA-260418-climat-d72756c15b7c].

The government accordingly remains at emergency fuel-supply stage two and has signalled no intention to escalate to stage three in the near term.

Against that backdrop, Minister Bowen's 18 April media release presented a supply stack showing measurable week-on-week progress. Petroleum stocks reached 46 days on hand (2 billion litres) — up 8 days from the prior week and 10 days above the crisis-onset level in late February. Diesel held at 31 days (2.8 billion litres) and jet fuel rose to 30 days.

The government has 61 cargo ships in transit, four more than the prior week, with import contracts locked through May totalling 4.1 billion litres: 2.055 billion litres diesel, 753 million litres petrol, 390 million litres jet fuel, and 903 million litres crude oil [TA-260418-climat-d72756c15b7c].

Domestic refinery recovery added a complication. The Viva Energy refinery in Geelong sustained a fire on Friday and is now operating at 80 per cent capacity for diesel and jet fuel but only 60 per cent for petrol. Management indicated it would update publicly on Monday on plans to lift petrol production further.

To help absorb this constraint, Bowen extended the temporary fuel standard permitting higher sulphur content in petrol — the 50 parts per million threshold — from end-May through end-September, with a blending extension running to 31 December to give refiners and importers time to transition their fleets [TA-260418-climat-d72756c15b7c]. The sulphur-standard extension is a regulatory instrument explicitly designed to bridge the gap between the Strait reopening and full supply normalisation, and its multi-month duration signals that the government does not expect the supply chain to self-correct quickly.

Service station outages continued to narrow. Nationally, 120 of approximately 8,000 stations lacked diesel — 1.7 per cent of the network — leaving 98.5 per cent adequately stocked. In NSW, 49 stations were without diesel (2 per cent of 2,400 outlets) and 15 were without petrol (0.5 per cent).

The government is coordinating with state and territory counterparts through the National Cabinet and the Council of Australian Federations.

Taken together, the 18 April release sustains the dual-track response visible across recent weeks: granular weekly supply-stack reporting to anchor public confidence, combined with targeted operational interventions — fuel-standard extensions, refinery monitoring, cargo contracting — to manage the lag between the Strait's diplomatic reopening and actual supply normalisation reaching Australian forecourts.