Australia's Fuel Crisis: A Comprehensive Data Analysis
Australia is currently grappling with a significant fuel crisis, marked by soaring prices and widespread service station outages. This article provides an in-depth look at the situation through interactive tools and detailed charts, helping you track the evolving landscape of fuel availability and costs across the country.
Tracking Fuel Prices and Outages
Utilise our dedicated fuel tracker to monitor petrol and diesel prices in real-time. The tool includes a map that displays the number of service stations experiencing fuel shortages, offering a clear visual representation of outages day by day. Since data collection began on 27 March, there has been a notable spike in outages, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria on 30 and 31 March. Fuel outages are dynamic, with stations frequently running out and restocking as governments and companies work to stabilise supply chains.
Price variations can be substantial, even within small geographic areas. On average, petrol and diesel prices across Australia have risen significantly since late February, coinciding with the onset of the US and Israel's war on Iran. This highlights the global factors influencing local fuel markets.
Fuel Shipments and Reserve Supplies
The crisis has been exacerbated by disruptions in fuel shipments. At least six deliveries to Australia have been cancelled or deferred, with experts predicting further delays. A chart of "port calls" shows a slight decline in tanker visits to Australian ports in February and March compared to the past six years, though this data does not distinguish between imports and exports.
Notably, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed in early March. Prior to the conflict, this strait facilitated about one-fifth of global oil shipments and one-third of fertiliser exports, underscoring its critical role in supply chains.
In response, the federal government has implemented measures such as releasing fuel reserves, cutting excise taxes, and rolling out a national fuel security plan. Early in March, minimum stock levels for fuel companies were reduced. A weekly snapshot chart compares current fuel reserves to these new minimums, estimating how long supplies would last at normal consumption rates. As of early April, Australia's fuel reserves, measured in days of supply, had actually increased from pre-war levels, indicating some resilience in the system.
Data Sources and Methodology
The data presented here is sourced from government fuel websites and APIs on a daily basis. Average prices for petrol, E10, and diesel are obtained from Motormouth once per day. Some government data is live, while other updates occur on a delay or when stations adjust prices; all displayed dates reflect when the data was retrieved.
Availability data varies by region: Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and the Northern Territory explicitly indicate fuel availability in their datasets. For New South Wales and Tasmania, outages are estimated based on the types of fuels typically carried by stations compared to current availability. Western Australia's data relies on temporary outage dates for each station, with historical data from Fuelwatch used for 26 to 30 March and outages estimated similarly to NSW and Tasmania.
Daily total outage counts are derived from the sum of all data displayed for each date on the map. Tanker data comes from Portwatch at the University of Oxford, using IMF sources, and counts port visits by tanker ships, which may include imports or exports. This data is sourced daily but not updated every day. This page will be updated continuously as the fuel crisis unfolds, with any significant corrections footnoted in accordance with editorial standards.
