Australia has secured the delivery of 600,000 barrels of kerosene from China, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi announced today, amid a full-blown rise in fuel prices.
The island nation is heavily dependent on air transport, mainly for tourism and freight exports.
The three shipments of kerosene are expected to arrive in June and follow Albanesi’s talks with Chinese Premier Lee Chiang last month on energy security.
The three shipments are expected to arrive in June and follow talks between Albanesi and Chinese Premier Li Chiang last month on energy security.
Australia has been trying to avoid fuel shortages as the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s hydrocarbon production passes in peacetime and on which the Asia-Pacific region depends heavily, has been blockaded since February after Israeli-American strikes on Iran.
The Oceania country, which so far has no national reserves, will build up a stockpile of one billion litres of fuel, Albanesi announced earlier this month.
China last year provided around a quarter of the fuel destined for Australian aviation. At the same time, Beijing imports large quantities of Australian iron ore, coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao this week in Suzhou on the sidelines of a meeting of trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to be held in that Chinese city.
Trade between Australia and China reached A$326 billion (nearly 200 billion euros) last year, dominated by exports of Australian raw materials.
Farrell is also expected to travel to Tokyo today for energy security and trade talks with Japan, another big buyer of Australian LNG and coal.
Australia announced this month that it would reserve for the domestic market the equivalent of 20 percent of its gas exports to avoid any shortages.
