Back in July 2018, News Weekly warned that Australia’s imported fuel stocks were perilously low should any international crisis arise. Our stocks at the end of June 2025 were: jet fuel, 18 days; petrol, 27 days; and diesel, 23 days; for an IEA rating of 47 days. The Federal Government on July 1, 2023, enacted a national fuel minimum stockholding obligation (MSO), which guarantees a baseline level of domestic fuel stocks. The MSO’s smoke and mirrors accounting includes: fuels in pipelines and crude oil and certain unfinished stocks at refineries, plus refined fuel stocks on water within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) out to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) as … fuel “onshore”. An Australian fuel crisis will impact supply chains, all transportation – road, rail, air – and electricity supplies from coal-fired power stations that receive their fuel by rail and road.