Higher sulphur limits will be reintroduced into Australia's fuel supply for the next two months, after lower limits were enforced in December.
Sulphur limits in Australia's unleaded petrol supply will be relaxed for the next two months, the Federal Government has confirmed, amid rising costs and supply concerns due to conflict in the Middle East.
Australia's 91-octane unleaded supply will also temporarily be allowed to increase from 10ppm to 50ppm, Drive understands, remaining lower than the 150ppm limit before the new standards were introduced in December last year.
Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the relaxed sulphur limits will add 100 million litres of new fuel supply each month – or around two days' worth, according to the ABC – by redirecting usually-exported fuel into the domestic supply.
Ampol Australia, which operates an oil refinery in Brisbane, has committed to sending its fuel supply "to regions of shortage and for the wholesale spot market that supports independent distributors and harvesters," Minister Bowen said.
The decision to temporarily relax Australia's fuel sulphur limits follows an agreement by member countries of the International Energy Agency – including Australia – to release 400 billion barrels of oil from emergency reserves.
Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, Senator Tim Ayres, told ABC Radio earlier this week Australia currently has around 36 days of petrol and 32 days of diesel in reserve, which has "not fundamentally changed since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East".
Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA) chief executive Rowan Lee told Drive an unexpected surge in customer demand, and other industry factors, have caused fuel prices to increase across the nation since the beginning of March.
"There's plenty of supply around … what's happened here is that [people] have started to panic buy and there's been quite some erratic [buying] behaviour that's quite unprecedented," Lee said.
"The best thing everyone can do is a bit like toilet paper during COVID, just buy as you normally would. There'll be petrol at the petrol stations next week, prices have come back down a little.
"You normally get a spike and then a general plateau of pricing and it appears that's what's happening now."
“We know the impact that higher prices are having on Australian consumers," ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said in a media release.
"We have been watching pricing behaviour closely since the outbreak of recent hostilities in the Middle East and will take action against any case of misleading consumers about the reason for the steep and rapid increase in prices by individual retailers or any breaches of the competition provisions.
"We are closely watching market behaviour and if there is conduct that is collusive or misleading or deceptive, we will investigate it and take action where appropriate."
The weekly average 91-octane unleaded price in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth is currently around 220 cents per litre, according to ACCC data.
Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
