Oil tankers have never stopped, industry assures, though they are in uncharted waters Fuel companies say supply for the next month is secure. Ships carrying oil are continuing to come to Australia as expected and should do so for the next month, and the industry is urging that while the picture beyond that is uncertain and complicated, "the tankers have never stopped coming." Australia's fuel companies and industry met on Tuesday where they agreed that the nation's current fuel crisis was wholly demand-driven, not an issue of supply. Supplies of crude and refined oil to Australia have been arriving as scheduled since the Middle East war erupted just over a fortnight ago. NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury says 18 fuel tankers arrived in Australia last week, and another 33 were en route. Contracted shipments of oil to Australia were all but guaranteed for at least the next month, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said. "The oil companies say to me that they fully expect all deliveries all through March and well into April, but we are in an internationally uncertain time and that's why we're doing such planning at the moment," Mr Bowen said. Mr Khoury has urged people to remain calm, saying there has never been a point in Australia's history when supply wasn't coming in. "As long as supply continues there is no need to panic, and supply has been continuing," Mr Khoury said. "I know a lot of people are saying, 'What if?' so let me put it another way: even in the darkest days of the Second World War, when Darwin was being bombed, Nazi Germany had taken over most of Europe, the war hadn't turned yet in the Allies' favour, even then we were still getting supply of oil into Australia. The tankers have never stopped coming.#australia #strait_of_hormuz #middle_east_war #chris_bowen #peter_khoury
