The Australian Government should call for an update to the international fuel stockpiling rules and take responsibility for holding emergency fuel stocks, the Australian Trucking Association said in this submission to the Department of Industry’s Energy Green Paper.

Australia is a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which requires member countries to hold 90 days of emergency oil stocks in case of a significant oil supply disruption. Australia’s fuel stocks stand at 52 days, which is the lowest of the IEA member countries.

Currently, all of Australia’s oil stocks are held by commercial entities. The Australian Government provides no capacity and holds no stocks.

However, the IEA’s 90 day requirement was set in 1974. This figure does not account for developments in the petroleum market since this time, including the holding of stocks at sea. These stocks account for more than a quarter of total oil stockholding directly owned and controlled by Australian companies.

The submission recommends that the Government should press the IEA to review its 90 days stockholding figure to reflect these developments and create a revised oil stockholding requirement.

And in order to secure Australia’s national interests, the Government should provide capacity storage to the revised IEA stockholding level.

The submission also recommends other measures to improve fuel security, including encouraging alternative fuel infrastructure, supporting the research and commercialisation of renewable fuels, and removing obstacles to the use of more fuel efficient high productivity vehicles.