The head of the International Energy Agency questioned whether governments had grasped the magnitude of the worst oil crisis in history, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on Australia’s trading partners to keep fuel flowing if they expected gas in return, and Energy Minister Chris Bowen flagged the possibility of petrol rationing for the first time.
Albanese and his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong on Monday agreed to maintain open trade flows and rejected “unjustified” import and export restrictions on oil, after China and South Korea curtailed their fuel sales. Australia is reliant on imports for 90 per cent of its fuel.