Premier Roger Cook sends letter to fuel suppliers, as diesel outages surge almost 350 per cent in days

Premier Roger Cook has set a four-day deadline, warning fuel suppliers that he “won’t hesitate” to use emergency powers if they fail to provide full transparency over where their petrol and diesel is going.

He dismissed suggestions that he should already be compelling them to provide that information, as the number of retailers without diesel or unleaded continues to grow.

Instead of enacting emergency powers available under the Fuel, Energy and Power Resources Act, Mr Cook has written to fuel suppliers, warning them he will use the Fuel, Energy and Power Resources Act, if necessary.

“Our preference is for them to share this information voluntarily,” Mr Cook said.

“But I won’t hesitate to make the decisions I need to make to get the information that we need.

“We are still at level one of the hazard management plan for energy disruption and that hasn’t changed, but this is a very fluid situation.”

Under the current legislation, if a ‘State of Emergency’ is declared it gives the State Government the powers to:

• Force suppliers to hand over information on their stock holdings and operations
• Maintain, control, and regulate supplies to ensure they are sufficient for the community
• Implement permits or rationing

The Premier has asked each supplier to reveal their “stockhold position”, volumes and distributors supplied since March 1, and to indicate how they will prioritise regional, agricultural or maritime consumers.

“It’s fair to say the engagement has been variable across the major suppliers,” Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.

“So we need greater clarification on volumes, percentages and distribution.”

She insisted distribution remains the primary concern, not overall supply.

“We’re seeing significant volumes across BP and Ampol (but) we’re not getting the kind of information that we need for the small distributors,” Ms Sanderson said.

“So I think what this has certainly flushed out across the country is that we have a structural issue with the supply chain.”

As the fuel crisis worsens, there’s growing concern about supplies of fertiliser for farmers and primary industry.

“A significant proportion of our fertiliser comes from the Middle East, those supply chains have been shot to pieces,” Mr Cook said.

He’s again rejected calls for fuel rationing, or a price cap.

Read the letter in full below

And he dismissed the State Opposition’s call for “non-essential events” like a weekend car rally in Pemberton to be postponed, to reduce fuel demand.

“We want people to do the right thing, we don’t want people to undertake activities that would deny someone else the fuel supplies that they need,” Mr Cook said.

“We continue to focus on the distribution. That’s my biggest priority to get the fuel to farmers that they need, but as far as more drastic measures we’re not at that point yet”.

The Premier wouldn’t say when more intervention might be required, if the war in Iran continues to affect supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The conflict in the Middle East is the key pivot point,” he said.

“If that conflict is shortened well then you’ll see those international supply chains stood back up.

“But at this stage we’re focused on those fuel supply issues”.