The Australian Financial Review<\/a>, the federal government\u2019s intervention has led to an oversupply of diesel.<\/p>\nAnd tankers have been parked off the coast for months while they wait for storage to become available. <\/p>\n
They include the Panama-flagged PIS Madura, which arrived off the Queensland coast from South Korea in May and still has not discharged its diesel.<\/p>\n
Sources claim its total demurrage \u2013 the daily cost of leasing a ship that cannot offload its cargo \u2013 could be as high as AUD $5 million over three months. <\/p>\n
But exactly why PIS Madura has spent so much time in Australian waters is subject to debate.<\/p>\n
Macquarie University Senior Finance Lecturer Lurion De Mello said the vessel may have suffered a mechanical issue, because data from the London Stock Exchange Group showed tankers were discharging their fuel in Australia \u201cfairly quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although he saw Australia\u2019s current diesel supply as healthy, Dr De Mello doubted there was a supply glut. <\/p>\n
He pointed out that the country consumes just under 100 million litres of diesel a day, so the EFA\u2019s contribution of 795 million litres was \u201chardly a truckload of diesel or something that would be stranded and waiting for discharge\u201d. <\/p>\n
Dr De Mello said ships were getting in and out of ports like Kurnell and Botany Bay in 48 to 72 hours, which was \u201cabsolutely normal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some delays in WA for one or two, but these are very small ports and nothing alarming,\u201d he told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the ship is some covert operation, I doubt a port would pick and choose, keep Government-sourced ships out at sea, and allow others to discharge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Morrison, energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, had a different view.<\/p>\n
He suspected PIS Madura hadn\u2019t moved because it was still waiting for storage space to free up after the EFA inadvertently ordered too much fuel following the outbreak of the war. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Australian government used all its levers, did the energy diplomacy, and then it got its finance arm involved, and I suppose that intervention of another player that\u2019s not normally in the oil market day-to-day, they have used their financial leverage and bought these extra cargoes,\u201d Mr Morrison told news.com.au. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat in itself may not be such a problem, but Australia inherently has too little storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said those imports, combined with fuel refined at home and a drop in consumption, had led to \u201cquite a big surplus, and because we\u2019ve got limited storage capacity that quickly ran out, particularly for diesel and petrol\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re in a situation where there\u2019s cargoes off the coast of Australia and they\u2019re having a hard time unloading.\u201d <\/p>\n
Depending on its size, a vessel waiting to offload diesel could be carrying as much as one day\u2019s worth of imports, Mr Morrison said.<\/p>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/9610afd449560c29727dbf22229406a8\")
<\/p>\n
Another blow for consumers<\/p>\n
PIS Madura was sitting idle just as Australian fuel consumers were hit with a double whammy this week, as fuel excise relief came to an end and a new tax hike took effect. <\/p>\n
Fuel excise was temporarily reduced on April 1 from 52.6 cents a litre to 20.6 cents a litre, a 32 cents per litre discount to wholesale fuel prices.<\/p>\n
The Albanese Government then partially extended the relief to August 2, albeit reducing the discount at the pump to 16 cents a litre.<\/p>\n
But that relief ended at midnight on Sunday, and on Monday, petrol and diesel were also slapped with a tax hike from 36.6 cents per litre to 53.7 cents per litre as part of their twice-yearly inflation indexation.<\/p>\n
The NSW Government website FuelCheck showed average petrol prices in the state had jumped from $1.94 per litre on Sunday to $2.06 on Thursday, while diesel had hit $2.50 per litre.<\/p>\n
News.com.au has contacted the PIS Madura\u2019s owner and Viva Energy, the reported owner of the diesel on board, for comment. <\/p>\n
Read related topics:Brisbane<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mystery surrounds a diesel tanker that has been anchored off the Australian coast for months without offloading its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83359,83324,83377,83356,74818,83381,83298,83301,83339,83390,55494,83370,83342,83306,83373,83326,83299,83380,37565,83405,83364,83397,36942,83403,83337,83396,83330,83297,83389,83353,83323,83387,42345,83367,57986,83352,79280,1757,83340,48422,83360,83341,1572,83404,83305,22,83401,83366,7776,23,83372,83368,21,83345,63098,20839,83336,31752,83398,68632,2176,22074,83296,7299,83374,83379,83378,83362,83349,83343,171,83371,43148,1625,83300,83304,28795,83385,541,23302,83318,83383,83307,52,59122,14863,4380,83344,83295,83354,83355,83331,83357,83394,83384,83319,41131,83386,83369,83382,43677,37045,39122,76185,34229,83294,37007,83303,83406,3121,5114,83392,83314,83363,83322,21787,212,83325,83334,2671,304,83395,83315,83348,8652,83391,83388,83321,12052,83375,83350,10609,83361,19816,83310,2869,83327,83313,63714,48240,40099,37024,83335,83312,83311,83399,83358,14897,83347,48584,83329,36847,83402,48374,83365,83317,83328,83346,40103,69426,83333,72416,37964,37041,36628,83302,41175,37120,83320,83332,83393,83376,38964,83400,53762,7444,83316,83308,83309,83338,34374,3735,83351],"class_list":["post-66484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-diesel-tanker","tag-s-contribution","tag-s-current-diesel-supply","tag-s-intervention","tag-s-owner","tag-s-temporary-fuel-excise-relief","tag-s-worth","tag-1-94","tag-2-06","tag-2-50","tag-16-cents","tag-20-6-cents","tag-36-6-cents","tag-48-to-72-hours","tag-52-6-cents","tag-53-7-cents","tag-795-million-litres","tag-a-32-cents","tag-a-day","tag-a-diesel-tanker","tag-a-different-view-he","tag-a-double-whammy","tag-a-drop","tag-a-hard-time","tag-a-litre","tag-a-litre-but","tag-a-mechanical-issue","tag-a-new-inflation-adjustment","tag-a-new-tax-hike","tag-a-port","tag-a-potential-fuel-shortage","tag-a-ship","tag-a-situation","tag-a-supply-glut","tag-a-tax-hike","tag-a-truckload","tag-a-vessel","tag-albanese-government","tag-all-its-levers","tag-an-end","tag-an-oversupply","tag-another-player","tag-april","tag-april-1","tag-as-much-as-one-day","tag-au","tag-aud-5-million","tag-august-2","tag-aus","tag-australia","tag-australian-fuel-consumers","tag-australian-waters","tag-austrlia","tag-average-petrol-prices","tag-blow","tag-board","tag-cargoes","tag-comment","tag-consumerspis","tag-consumption","tag-data","tag-debate","tag-debate-macquarie","tag-diesel","tag-diesel-and-petrol","tag-diesel-imports","tag-diesel-or-something","tag-diesel-and-tankers","tag-discharge","tag-dr-de-mello","tag-drivers","tag-efa","tag-effect","tag-energy","tag-energy-economics-and","tag-energy-finance-analyst","tag-experts","tag-financial-analysis","tag-fuel","tag-fuel-excise","tag-fuel-excise-relief","tag-government-agency-export-finance-australia","tag-government-sourced-ships","tag-home","tag-imports","tag-industry-sources","tag-intervention","tag-its-cargo","tag-its-diesel-sources","tag-its-finance-arm","tag-its-size","tag-its-total-demurrage","tag-just-under-100-million-litres","tag-kevin-morrison","tag-kurnell-and-botany-bay","tag-limited-storage-capacity","tag-litre","tag-litre-discount","tag-litre-news-com-au","tag-madura","tag-midnight","tag-monday","tag-months","tag-mr-morrison","tag-mystery","tag-mystery-surrounds","tag-news-com-au","tag-one-or-two","tag-our-needs-in","tag-part","tag-partnership","tag-petrol-and-diesel","tag-petrol-and-diesel-prices","tag-pis-madura","tag-ports","tag-pressure","tag-queensland","tag-quite-a-big-surplus","tag-roughly-795-million-litres","tag-sea","tag-ship","tag-shipments","tag-ships","tag-so-much-time","tag-soaring-fuel-costs","tag-soaring-fuel-prices","tag-some-covert-operation","tag-some-delays","tag-south-korea","tag-storage","tag-storage-space","tag-stranded","tag-such-a-problem","tag-sunday","tag-tankers","tag-taxpayer-funds","tag-that-relief","tag-the-australian-coast","tag-the-australian-financial-review","tag-the-australian-government","tag-the-coast","tag-the-country","tag-the-daily-cost","tag-the-diesel","tag-the-discount","tag-the-efa","tag-the-energy-diplomacy","tag-the-federal-government","tag-the-institute","tag-the-iran-war","tag-the-london-stock-exchange-group","tag-the-nation","tag-the-oil-market","tag-the-outbreak","tag-the-panama-flagged-pis-madura","tag-the-pis-madura","tag-the-pump","tag-the-pump-prices","tag-the-queensland-coast","tag-the-relief","tag-the-reported-owner","tag-the-ship","tag-the-state","tag-the-uk","tag-the-us","tag-the-vessel","tag-the-war","tag-the-world","tag-their-financial-leverage","tag-their-fuel","tag-their-twice-yearly-inflation-indexation-the-nsw-government-website-fuelcheck","tag-these-extra-cargoes","tag-this-week","tag-those-imports","tag-three-months","tag-thursday","tag-too-little-storage","tag-too-much-fuel","tag-university-senior-finance-lecturer-lurion-de-mello","tag-very-small-ports","tag-viva-energy","tag-wa","tag-wholesale-fuel-prices-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}