Big miners are pushing the competition regulator for permission to collaborate on fuel security strategies, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to put the energy crisis on the agenda at a national cabinet meeting on Monday.
The Middle East war has choked the global supply of oil, gas and refined fuels and prompted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to give preliminary approval for big Australian fuel suppliers such as Ampol and Viva Energy to work together to meet the country’s needs.
If approved next month, the ACCC’s ruling would give the oil companies immunity from competition laws, and Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable said the national interest would be served if big consumers were allowed to work together too.
“We want to be able to talk among companies about what is going on at the moment, so we are seeking an authorisation from the ACCC to make sure we are lawful in our industry responses,” she said.
Miners are among the biggest consumers of diesel. The big three iron ore miners – BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue – consume close to 2 billion litres of the fuel each year in the Pilbara region of WA.
Much of that diesel is burnt by haul trucks, but many mining companies also rely on diesel and gas for electricity generation at their remote sites.
Miners also rely on aircraft that burn vast amounts of aviation fuel to fly their staff to and from sites, while their products are shipped to foreign customers in vessels powered by a low-grade fuel called bunker.
If approved by the ACCC, the miners are expected to collaborate on securing fuel for suppliers and contractors.
Trucking schedules
The application comes after the watchdog granted miners permission to share inventories during the pandemic.
Under the immunity from competition laws granted to miners in April 2020, companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto and other members of the Minerals Council were allowed to collaborate on trucking schedules and procurement of safety equipment to minimise the strain on supply chains.
Most big miners and their haulage providers are not suffering from major fuel shortages yet, but WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief Aaron Morey said there were signs of strain.
“Some smaller mining operations have already reduced non-essential activities to manage fuel supply. Any further constraints will increasingly come at the expense of day-to-day operations, with flow-on impacts for jobs and taxation revenue,” he said last week.
The ACCC did not comment on the prospect of collaboration between big fuel consumers and will spend the next two weeks collecting feedback on its preliminary decision to allow the big oil companies to collaborate.
It said the oil companies should be allowed to work together to ensure fuel supplies are spread evenly around Australia and not concentrated in certain areas.
The preliminary ruling would also allow the oil companies to collaborate on maintenance schedules to ensure Australia’s two remaining refineries were not offline at the same time.
The first example came when Viva agreed to defer a maintenance outage at the Geelong refinery and Santos agreed to early delivery of a parcel of crude oil from the Cooper Basin.
“Santos’ prompt support to bring forward crude deliveries has been critical to maintaining this production and demonstrates how we are working together to safeguard Australian fuel security,” said Viva boss Scott Wyatt on Sunday.
Santos said it had also delivered a parcel of crude oil from Western Australia’s Varanus Island to Ampol for refining at Lytton near Brisbane.
Medium-term goal
The ACCC has also encouraged the oil companies to share information about storage capacity.
Although securing fuel for the next few months was the immediate priority, Constable said governments must also have a “medium-term” goal to liberate more domestic gas supply.
She nominated Santos’ Dorado field in Western Australia as a prime site for development and said impediments to onshore gas in Victoria and NSW should also be relaxed to firm up gas supply.
Daily market prices for LNG in Japan and South Korea have soared to $US20.51 per unit according to S&P Global Platts, more than double the $US9.27 per unit price recorded on January 8.
The cost of shipping iron ore to the Chinese port of Qingdao has also risen from $US7.10 a tonne on January 15 to $US13.45 a tonne in mid-March.
The cost of a capesize vessel to carry coking coal from Hay Point in Queensland to Qingdao also doubled between January 15 and March 15.
The benchmark iron ore price was $US108.10 a tonne on March 27, according to S&P Global Platts.
Top-quality Queensland coking coal was fetching $US234 a tonne on March 27, up from $US172 a tonne in July, suggesting the coal price cycle is well past its nadir.
Top-quality NSW thermal coal was fetching $US135.42 a tonne on March 27, up from $US94 a tonne in April 2025.
Extracted in full from: https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/big-miners-push-accc-for-permission-to-collaborate-on-fuel-20260327-p5zjen
