The Morrison government is working with the Australian fuel industry to bolster Australia's domestic fuel security and ease pressures on the nation's refineries.
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The includes temporary changes to the diesel standard to enable all Australian refineries to utilise excess jet fuel supplies.
"This will ease the storage pressures currently being felt by refineries from the drop in demand for fuel products as a result of COVID-19," Energy Minister Angus Taylor said in a statement on Monday.
"High quality diesel will continue to be supplied to the retail market and the change will not affect the operation of vehicles, the environment, or health and safety."
The government is also seeking opportunities to increase Australia's domestic fuel storage by seeking information from industry players on potential storage projects, the results of which will be announced later this year.
"The Australian government has a comprehensive fuel security package, with the next steps of this plan focusing on strengthening Australia's local industry," Mr Taylor said.
"The government wants to assess how we can best partner with industry to increase our storage capacity to further enhance our onshore fuel security."
This process forms part of the government's comprehensive storage program and follows on from Australia and the United State finalising a deal to store Australian government owned oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
This came after Mr Taylor announced in April that the government would be taking advantage of the current low world oil prices to help Australia boost its oil holdings.
Australian Associated Press
