The Australian Government has said it will spend $211 million Australian dollars “to ensure long-term fuel security, including building new storage capacity and providing financial support to local refineries”.
The largest portion of the funding will be invested in a competitive grants programme to build 780 million L (4.9 million bbl) of onshore diesel storage.
Australia’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources will also create a minimum stockholding obligation for key transport fuels including petrol and jet fuel, to act as a safety net. Stocks for diesel will be increased by 40%.
The department will also enter into a detailed market design process for a refinery production payment, to make sure refineries can keep operating.
The Energy Department said the package “will keep prices low for customers and create more than 1,000 new jobs, with 950 jobs created in constructing the new storage and 75 ongoing jobs”. It will also help to support the Australian economy as it recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Australian Government also said it will spend the next six months working with industry on the package’s legislative and regulatory design. It will introduce additional measures to reduce the burden on industry and improve fuel market information, including through modernising the online fuel reporting system, allowing industry to report stock levels to the Government more easily and quickly, and removing the application fees for fuel standard variation requests.
For more information visit www.environment.gov.au/energy
