SYDNEY, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The government of Western Australia (WA) said on Tuesday that it has secured four million liters of diesel for a strategic stockpile that will be reserved for remote communities and the agriculture sector.
WA's Premier Roger Cook and Minister for Energy and Decarbonization Amber-Jade Sanderson announced that the state government has struck a deal with local fuel supplier Cambridge Gulf to purchase four million liters of diesel.
Cook and Sanderson said in a joint statement that the fuel would be fully state-owned so the government can direct it where it is most needed.
"It's diesel that will be 100 percent state-owned and reserved for those who need it most such as remote communities and the agriculture sector, allowing us to act quickly when we need to," Cook said.
The federal energy minister Chris Bowen said on Monday that Australia had 31 days' worth of diesel in the national stockpile compared to 38 days' of unleaded petrol and 28 days' worth of jet fuel.
He said that there were 205 service stations across the country without any diesel. ■