Envisory was engaged to provide an explanatory report on the way in which resilience is built into systems to manage disruption in the petroleum fuels supply chain. This included consultation with the main fuel suppliers in Australia.

The report examined the levers used to provide resilience at different steps of the supply chain, and how these are used by fuel suppliers to mitigate disruption events. These levers included:

• A diverse source of supply and suppliers;
• Established long term relationships for supplies;
• Trading ability to manage variation and disruption;
• Supporting storage strategies, particularly around trading centres;
• Stock held throughout the supply chain; and
• Shipping flexibility

Prices increase in the event of a disruption.This price signal attracts supply to the region allowing cargoes to be sourced from alternate locations to replace lost supply. Domestically, suppliers have flexibility particularly with shipping and through deals with competitors, that allows stock in other parts of Australia and on ships destined for Australia to cover disruptions in individual locations.

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