Australia minister urges keeping 'fuel flowing' on China visit

Australia's foreign minister urged Wednesday on a visit to Beijing the need to keep fuel and goods moving despite the bottlenecks caused by war in the Middle East.

The war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil transits, has caused fuel prices to soar and left many Asia-Pacific nations facing an energy crisis.

China, a major exporter of jet fuel and diesel to Australia among others, has avoided the worst of the war's energy impacts thanks to its vast oil stocks, but paused exports at the start of the conflict to protect its domestic supplies.

Asian refineries in the Indo-Pacific region have been disproportionately affected, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, according to an Australian foreign ministry readout.

"It is more important than ever that we continue to engage and find ways to work together, to keep fuel and goods flowing," Wong told Han, according to an Australian foreign ministry readout.

China is set to resume exports from May with major state-owned companies applying for licenses to do so, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing industry sources.

Chinese authorities have not commented publicly on the matter.

Wong added that "with China, Australia will continue to cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in the national interest". 

AFP

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