As the Middle East conflict continues to drift into unchartered territory, fuel fears continue to escalate and prices are skyrocketing around the world.
Prices are reaching close to $3 a litre for petrol and diesel in parts of the country, and some petrol stations in both cities and rural towns are running out altogether.
The government has insisted there is no issue of fuel supply, but how much fuel is actually left in Australia?
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How much fuel does Australia have left?
It is difficult to come up with an exact figure of fuel that Australia can use, but energy minister Chris Bowen gave a hint in an interview yesterday.
"Supply of petrol has gone up a little bit, [we have] 38 days worth of supply," he said on ABC's Insiders.
"Diesel and jet fuel [are] both at 30 days, which is pretty flat and that indicates that while we've released more from the strategic reserve, the ships continue to arrive in good numbers.
Bowen said the figures were updated just a day before, and he insisted Australia's refineries were working at full capacity and only focused on getting fuel to Australian suppliers, not foreign exports.
This has remained steady at levels seen at the start of the conflict earlier this month.
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Where does Australia get its petrol from?
Australia gets most of its oil from overseas; in fact, just 10 per cent comes locally.
That said, almost none of it comes from the Middle East region; instead, Australia gets much of its oil from Asian countries.
While you may think this means Australia shouldn't be hit hard by a conflict in the Middle East, think again.
South Korea and Singapore are the biggest suppliers of Australia's oil, with Malaysia, India, Taiwan and China also contributing highly.
However, these countries get most of their oil from the Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.
All of these countries have not only been impacted by Iranian strikes, but are also unable to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz due to Iran's blocking of it.
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Will Australia have to ration fuel?
It was something whispered quietly last week, but governments at all levels are insisting fuel rationing will not be required at the moment.
However, some experts claim fuel rationing would actually be a smart option to help ease the fuel crisis.
"It is better to act sooner rather than later given our limited reserves and the spectre of early fuel price buying, queuing and hoarding," former head of the ACCC Allan Fels said today.
"There's already discussion of some relatively soft steps which could include rationing of access to petrol based on odd/even number plates; driving every second day; working from home and speed limits.
"One problem with soft approaches (often proclaimed by governments with much fanfare) is that rather than reducing demand, they induce a rush to the bowsers by a public troubled by the adoption of rationing."
And even though the government is quick to discount the need for fuel rationing, if the war goes on for much longer than expected, it may be unavoidable.
"Obviously, this is a function of how long this conflict continues, and that's not something that I can answer in terms of what's going to happen," Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said last week.
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When was the last time Australia had fuel rationing?
Australia has not rationed fuel since 1979, and ironically, that had something to do with events in Iran as well.
Back then, workers at fuel refineries in the country went on strike, which combined with fuel supply disruption caused by the Iranian Revolution, forced the government to take action.
Before that, the last time wide-scale fuel rationing was implemented was during World War II.
When will fuel prices go down in Australia?
It all depends on when the cost of oil overall goes down.
At the moment, the cost remains high and could get even higher still as the conflict disrupts global trade and forces the cost of oil to remain at an elevated cost. This was also seen during the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Higher demand at the pumps also doesn't help as people continue to hoard and panic buy petrol.
Governments at all levels have urged Australians not to do this, as it can actually compound the problem of fuel supply and the cost of petrol at the pump overall.
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